The Chair

At 8 AM, when our doors open, they are eager for chairs. Sometimes they want a bathroom quickly, but more often they want a place to lock up their backpacks and plop into a chair.

The chair is a curiously revealing item. I occasionally hear people look at some guys sprawled in chairs and tell me the homeless are "lazy losers." Looking at some of my people collapse into chairs and fall asleep, maybe we’re illustrating that tough judgment.

But we’re not. There is far more to the picture.

As I said to one of those critics, "Last night did you get to sleep in a warm bed in a heated room for seven or eight peaceful hours? Or did you sacrifice an hour of sleep to catch Jay Leno’s monologue? Well, some of these folks slept on a tarp on the riverbank, huddled under a blanket. Some were afraid of being robbed or attacked in the night. Some were rained on, and everyone is just plain cold. Are they rested and ready for an energetic day of job-hunting? Hardly. They’re exhausted. Maybe if they can rest for a couple hours, here in a safe and warm place, then maybe later today they can think about what they need to do next to get their life back on track."

Fatigue is a major factor here. My people are often exhausted. As one guy said to me today, "Trying to get anything done takes forever. Walking and waiting. Walking and waiting." If the homeless are not physically exhausted, they’re mentally spent.

Fatigue can be emotional, spiritual, relational or physical. Fatigue often comes from overextending ourselves, but it can also come from despair or from traumas in our past. As I see things, fatigue is rarely a sign of "laziness." To me a sleeping person tells me two things:

1. This person has been through a lot

2. I’m glad they feel safe enough here to relax, rest and sleep.