This Week God Brought Us... "Kevin"

This week God brought us..."Kevin", with a story about looking for housing. He had held a good job and was more than self-sufficient before a severe accident led to a new reality of medical care and seemingly endless surgeries to repair the damage. He explained that he and his family would have to leave their current home in two months' time.  Where would they live then? I described our different programs, highlighted housing sections in the community resource guide, and shared our housing website, explaining that processes could take a long time thanks to the very high demand for affordable housing. He produced a thick folder of medical documentation, with images showing the many and various procedures he was undergoing to rebuild his broken body.  He was asking, in essence, didn't his particular challenging circumstance let him move "up the list" or qualify him for quicker services? I did not try to explain to him that a great many of those who come to us are likewise struggling with significant and ongoing medical issues that proscribe their income and limit their housing options. He offered that because of his injuries he struggled to understand and keep straight in his mind all the new information he was having to take on board - what he really needed, he said, was someone to sit down with him and help him to navigate all of these systems he had never had to learn before. In our line of work, we call this a case manager. I replied that our best answer might be to talk to our Housing office and gave him that direct number.  He left the lobby, but was less than satisfied, clearly hoping for something more concrete and obviously frustrated by this immersion into a world of systems and programs that he had trouble understanding. A few minutes later, he came back in, saying that when he called that number, he got an "out of service" message.  He was right. For two days, a technical glitch disabled that phone system. I could only counsel patience and persistence. The look on his face as he left again was one of defeat.  

Kevin is so many of those we encounter: overwhelmed by life and with needs that we cannot always meet quickly and cleanly. Perhaps God brings us Kevin and those like him to teach us humility.