KIMBERLI SPOLAR | GUEST

I was seven-years-old when my parents dismissed my dream to compete in the Little Miss New Jersey pageant. Thirty-seven years later, I brought the idea of competing for Mrs. North Carolina to my husband who was not sure it was a good idea. Five years of research, prayer, and two meetings with my pastor, and my husband finally agreed as he considered my pastor’s probing question, “What would it look like to join your wife in this adventure?” And after months of hard work, I was crowned Mrs. North Carolina USC 2022 at the age of 49.

When I started my journey, all I really knew about pageantry was that I had an excuse to wear sequin gowns and that I needed to do my best in the competition. But what I learned was that God had a unique process of heart transformation planned for me. Pageant titleholders have the unique opportunity to  publicly bring awareness to causes in which they are passionate about. I decided to partner with organizations working in Charlotte communities full of forgotten, undesirable, or otherwise marginalized people—many of them who were homeless.

Scripture teaches that God is a helper to the needy. Psalm 72: 12,  says, “For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.” And Psalm 70:5 says, “But I am poor and needy; hasten to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay!”

As I daily came face-to-face  with the homeless, talking with them, learning their names and then seeking them out by name, praying for them and caring for daily needs like food and clothing, God changed my heart and showed me what the compassion He has looks like as I sought to care for  needy people living in the margins of Charlotte—the largest city in North Carolina and an affluent one. God changed my heart to see the homeless with a vertical lens applied to the horizontal.

We hear the sermons exhorting us give our time, talents, and treasures to the Lord, and often our time and talents are used in our own circles: our families, our churches, our schools. Yet our needy neighbors also include  the dirty, foul smelling homeless man who lives behind our grocery store. God calls us to love others with compassionate hearts, including those outside our usual circles.

In Luke 10:25-37 Jesus tells the parable of the good Samaritan illustrating the priest and the Levite who look away from an injured man. These were religious leaders, men who knew God’s word, yet they passed the man by.  Compassion motivated the Samaritan to take loving action and help the man using all his resources.

In his book Generous Justice, Pastor Tim Keller writes, “We instinctively tend to limit for whom we exert ourselves. We do it for people like us, and for people who we like. Jesus will have none of that. By depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need regardless of race, politics, class and religion is your neighbor. Not everyone is your brother and sister in faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.”[1] Our neighbors include the addict, mentally ill, or the outcast. We are called to love them as well. When I help the homeless, I ask them for their name, talk to them,  pray with them, and give them something practical to help with a need.

Recently, on an exit ramp of a nearby freeway, I spotted one of my homeless friends, and yelled out to him across two lanes of paused traffic. He recognized me and  immediately wove through the cars to get to me. When I asked where everyone was, he tearfully shared the news of a wave of fentanyl poisoning. He told me of those who died, and my heart broke. The streets hadn’t been “cleaned up” by the authorities. No, this scourge had claimed the lives of several of these hurting image bearers I have been praying for and ministering to. Before my year-long service to the homeless community, I would have never stopped to listen to or engage a homeless person.

It was an unexpected journey, but God used a pageant crown to lead me into closeness with many who the Lord loves that I couldn’t see with His eyes before. What might the Lord do through you? How might He use you to love those that are often considered “unlovable?” Pray for the Holy Spirit to give you His eyes to see neighbors in need and may His heart of compassion move you into love and action for those around you.

[1] p. 67

Photo by Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash