Bleeding Hearts
May 22, 2008 by pistolpete
Growing up, there was a boy in my school - Brian Foley - who walked with a severe limp. I never knew for sure what his condition was, but I think he had a bad case of “Muscular Dystrophy”.
What I do know for sure is that the neighborhood kids treated him like garbage. They would push him over (which wasn’t difficult to do) and then laugh as he tried to get up. They would take his hand as if to help him, then let go and watch him fall to the ground again.
I felt bad for Brian, but I didn’t do much (if anything) to help him. I didn’t want to be known as the friend of a cripple. I would pray about him on Sunday in the confines of church, but I would ignore him through the week on the playground.
John Prine reflects on someone much like Brian in his song - “Billy the Bum”.
Billy the Bum
© John Prine
Billy the bum lived by the thumb
And sang of the hobo’s delight
He’d prove he could run
Twice as fast as the sun
By losing his shadow at night
Now he loved every girl
In this curly headed world
But no one will know it seems
For two twisted legs and a childhood disease
Left Billy just a bum in his dreamsChorus:
And he was just a gentle boy
A real florescent light
Cried pennies on Sunday morning
Laughed nickels on Saturday night
And your bullets they can’t harm him
Nor your knives tear him apart
Humiliation killed him
God bless his little heartNow he lived all alone
In a run down home
Near the side of the old railroad track
Where the trains used to run
Carrying freight by the ton
And blow the whistle as Billy’d wave back
But the children around Billy’s home town
Seemed to have nothin’ better to do
Then run around his house
With their tongues from their mouth
And make fun of that crippled old fool(Repeat chorus)
Now some folks they wait
And some folks they pray
For Jesus to rise up again
But none of these folks
In their holy cloaks
Ever took Billy on as a friend
For pity’s a crime
And it ain’t worth a dime
To a person who’s really in need
Just treat ‘em the same
As you would your own name
Next time that your heart starts to bleed(Repeat chorus)
If you want to be like Christ, get out there and get to know folks like Brian and Billy. Get to know the “bums” of the world rather than just feel angry when they get called that. Don’t feel sorry for them. Just be their friends.
{first published May 7, 2007 in Necessary Therapy}
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more reflections on John Prine music….
Amen to that, Pete. I have learned much much more from homeless people than they ever learned from me. Early on I realized a fallacy in my own thinking. I thought it the coolest thing to teach the gospel to the homeless. 5 minutes into one “Do you know Jesus?” speech the homeless man turned the tables and gave me the best, most heart-felt rendition of the gospel that I’ve ever heard. I learned that he was a far better preacher than I was, and he was already saved.
Hmm.. between the reading of Pistol’s post and Jim J’s comment it occurs to me that I too am guilty of carrying a preconceived notion that homeless folks are unchurched or saved.
I wonder; is this is due in part to the “church” focus of say feeding the hungry as a means to create opportunities for ministering? Not to imply that all churches do this nor that it is the soul (intentional pun) reason.
Perhaps, it’s the cultural mindset that equates success,health, wealth and prosperity with doing things “right” while poverty, sickness and a depressed lifestyle are equivalent to being not good, wrong, undesirable hence lost?
Thanks to the both of you for the eyeopener.
Grace and peace be with you.
Children can be cruel but also kind. It’s funny that children who have been loved and taught to love seem to have a natural aversion to this. But children left alone (morally speaking) CAN (not always will) embrace the joy of watching another’s pain. I dabbled in that as a boy, mostly because everyone else was, but found it to be incredibly said and guilt producing.
I did my internship with homeless people. The ones I worked with didn’t trust me because I was a Christian…so many of them were worked over by churches. It was so sad.
Looking back at my life I’m ashamed of all the times I didn’t stand up for someone who was being made fun of. Back then I didn’t know God, so I was really only concerned with not becoming the object of ridicule myself.
Sadly, now that I know God, that tendancy is still all too strong.