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This morning while having conversation with the city’s director for Back On My Feet and the other team leaders for BOMF’s shelters in Dallas, something came up that doesn’t really hit me as odd (I sort of expect it, unfortunately) but I did think it was worth mentioning.

After all, the most we can usually do is shed light on the truth through words and deeds and hope it’s provocative enough to move people, right?

We have about 150 “volunteers” or “non-residential team members” that are signed up/committed to running with the 3 shelters in Dallas. However, on a given morning with our team at Dallas LIFE, we have between 5-10 non-residential runners. 

Something doesn’t add up there, right? Let’s see: approximately 50 people (for our 1 shelter out of the 3) who took the time to attend orientation and commit to ONE MORNING a week and we only have 5-10 show up on a given morning. And frankly, they’re usually the same people. 

So it’s funny like that: people always complain that the homeless are lazy, apathetic, uncommitted and unwilling to change.

Yet they’re consistently there.

5:45 am. Monday, Wednesday, AND Friday. Some of them Saturday, too.

And I don’t actually mean this just to call out some runners who have found it too difficult to drag themselves out of bed at 5:45 one morning a week, though I’m happy to do that.

I just wanted to point out that through this process I’ve seen we are, generally speaking, lazy and apathetic and unwilling to change.

As people.

Not as homeless or non-homeless.

Just in general. We don’t like commitment. We don’t like to be stretched. We don’t like to sacrifice for the good of others.

We like to talk about it, dream about it, etc.

But when the alarm goes off, we’d rather just hit snooze.