Preston Searcy does it again. This post barks right up the alley Fat Beggars is all about. I invite my readers to check this post out (and the whole blog, actually). I love the line: If it cries, hold it! That’ll preach, brutha! Amen to that!!!
I’ve known Trevor and Karen for a couple of years. They aren’t married, but they have two children together.
Karen was adopted from the foster system when she was ten years old. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t struggle with alcohol or substance abuse.
Trevor, on the other hand, is the youngest of several siblings. He grew up in a loving home, but he also suffers from drug addiction.
I appreciate this couple because they are open and honest.
Most recently, they came to one of our ministry’s pizza lunches. I hadn’t seen them in a few weeks and wanted to catch up.
They were both quiet and stared down at their plates when they talked. I learned they’ve been living on the streets and that both of their children had been placed in foster care. Trevor can’t hold down a job because of his drug habit, and…
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Fat Beggars School of Prophets 
In fact, if it doesn’t cry, it isn’t human for we are taught not to cry, not to care and not to love. We were not that way when we were babes, but learned this from our sick elders.
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I really doubt many of MY readers have also read much work by Walter Brueggemann, but he is considered a leading Old Testament scholar. And somewhere in his work, several years ago, I read him describe two distinct expressions of faith throughout the Bible. One was “THE CRY” and the other… well cant recall his term for it just now, but it was something along the line of STEWARDSHIP or PROPER MANAGEMENT.
I am not actually endorsing his theory on that, but I have never forgot it. I think he was observing something important, though I still question his overall handling of it. Nevertheless, he suggests that THE CRY is the primal expression of faith. When God’s children run into trouble, they cry – mostly cry out to God. And God’s answer is SALVATION.
The STEWARDSHIP expression comes from those who HAVE BEEN SAVED. The SALVATION from their predicament is now in the past, but they express faith with grateful hearts that manage the gifts given. This expression is found in monarchies and wisdom lit mostly.
IF Brueg is on to something worthwhile with this, then it is easily translated to the idea that the HAVES then become the working hands and feet of God’s SALVATION on behalf of the HAVE NOTS who find themselves crying. This, then, would be a big picture view of SHALOM. OR something like that.
Again, I am not entirely endorsing this. I quibble even with Brueg, but he is a very thorough and imaginative thinker for Jesus who helps me think a lot of godly thoughts. And his thoughts certainly surface for me again when reading Searcy’s post.
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I do possibly see the primal scream as fundamental for birth/rebirth and the birthing pangs thereof. Maybe he is on to something there. With sin, it would show remorse, regret, but also at least the need for renewal or the fact that they can even feel at all. Many can’t they are so hardened.
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Well, I’ll tell ya… The way I was thinking of this plays out on the streets kinda like that woman you brought to our attention down near Houston who took in VICTOR.
I am not trying to inflate Victor’s cry, but the story did say he is a mental patient (which in my experience with the streets is very COMMON), and so his cry must filter through that. And the truly sad thing is that this grown man claimed he was waiting for his mother!
The lady who took him in and publicized his needs managed what God gave her and Victor responded in kind. The Cry of faith made complete with the Management of faith.
Of course so many do-gooders will drop of a sandwich for a guy like Victor. They avoid giving him money. And then think they have done something great. And I don’t want to deny the goodness there. In fact, either one will help a brother get through the night and hopefully find new opportunities the next day. But when this woman put her heart (and her treasures) into service to God, she answered the cry.
This does not mean Victor has no responsibility. He does. He needs to respond with gratitude. That is the start of a mature response. He might not manage that at first, sometimes hardbitten street people need a lot of softening up before they get there. And that can be frustrating for all. And if Victor had responded with hate or indifference – and especially if that began to be his routine practice, it would be wise to cut him off. That MIGHT wise him up. And THEN hopefully he would become grateful AND THEN build on the blessings God gives him through this woman.
Thank God in this case, it all seems to have gone so smoothly! He is the picture in the dictionary next to the word REDEMPTION, alright. A poster-boy for everything I certainly preach. And I am grateful for that.
But just because some are more stubborn to help does not absolve us from working on them. And yes, there is a place for TOUGH LOVE in a lot of these scenarios. But it must always be LOVE! and not giving up, turning away, and saying, well that’s what you get when you have a savior complex or whatever.
Yeah, I think Brueg is on to SOMETHING. And this is how I find myself applying it.
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Sorry, Tom, typing with a baby on my lap… it is hard to focus here…
I also want to say that Searcy brings out the celebration aspect. And I hate to reduce it to an “aspect” actually. But I think when that woman took Victor HOME with her, she celebrated him. She celebrated God in him. God through him. And God celebrated her through him too. There is the party going on when a lost, crying one is found! The party is the healing. The party is the worship. The party is finding ones purpose and reason to be. And the Party is what the Kingdom of God is all about.
And that points me to that other fantastic writer and one of his books, Tony Campolo who wrote, The Kingdom of God is a Party! The first chapter alone is worth the price of the book. The second chapter points out that in Ancient Israel, the nation tithed 10%. That is 10% of the Gross National Income. And do you know what they are instructed to do with all that cash???
One would immediately think of building hospitals, bigger sanctuaries, family life centers, buying sleeping bags and socks for the outreach ministry… all good, smart stuff to do with cash.
But God tells Israel to throw a party with it all. 10% of the national income throws a BIG party and looks like a waste of money to nearly every conservative eye I know…
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Good insight, my friend. In fact, I’ll so far and call it effective insight as I believe you are going to act on it.
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Don’t ever feel you HAVE to get back with me. I realize raising babies is a major job. Thanks for your insight once again.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/primal-therapy-arthur-janov
I thought I’d pass that along as it was very big in the 60s and I think it still could be (primal therapy)
I do like the idea of a feast. That’s the idea of everyone bringing something to the table. and in fact, even the homeless can bring something if it is only themselves.
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Neurogenic crying of which I have referred to as a cerebral scream is onset with children who have ms. I also know children (infants) who are seriously sick will also produce this cry. There might be a connection to that and when the demons who were cast out: they came out with a loud cry. No, I’m not saying demons are in these young kids, but I will say it is a sickness. And for adults it is a spiritual sickness: a death if you will.
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Oh yeah… You are running with the theology baton now and finding application! I love this! I am all about this…
Yeah, the expression of faith as cry… I could sit in a coffee house all day contemplating that. I could sit up all night in my kids dorm room with all his ministry classmates discussing that! I could smoke dope all weekend with the pot heads chewing on that (except I don’t smoke dope)… I just mean to say, YEAH… I LIVE THERE.
Thanx for taking it in this kind of direction. Yes, I answer the cry of infants all day and all night regularly. And I think it pertains to the point of the post. I think Searcy painted a picture big enough to include this with the words his friends mom offered. And I am not surprised to find it on the lips of a MOM.
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