There is a man sleeping on my porch.

Tonight a man wandered onto my porch while my roommate was sitting on our steps. He walked right past her and stood on our porch smoking his joint. I walked out of our house seconds later and asked him what he was doing. He said that he just wanted to sit on our couch. We ended up asking him to leave and he slowly (and somewhat pleasantly) stumbled down our steps.

Five minutes later this inebriated/high man came stumbling back only to see that we were still on the porch...he then left again. (It was still light outside at this point)

I went outside to get something at around 11:30 tonight and there was a figure lying on the couch on our porch with his head covered by our blanket, snoring. I went back inside, told the rest of the ladies and we decided to call the cops to see if someone could pick him up and bring him to detox; give him a place to sleep and get sober.

He seems to feel that he has some "right" to sleep here. He's started making this a routine. My roomies found him sleeping there two nights ago with the end of a joint lying on the ground. This makes me worried because a lot of my roomies come home late at night...and there's a strange, intoxicated man cutting some zzz's on our front steps.

Part of my heart is yelling "have compassion!" and the other part is screaming (a little more loudly than the first part) "KEEP YOUR BOUNDARIES!" What do you do when a strange, inebriated man is sleeping on your porch? I'm guessing he's got nowhere else to go... He's drunk (you can smell and see) and he was smoking a joint. I'm not scared because he seemed pleasant enough and I don't feel threatened, so to speak. But I do feel like he's invading my "safe space". This is my home, the place where I can put my feet up and not worry. This is the place that I want to be comfortable in and feel safe at all times. I want to be able to sit on my couch and not worry about having to kick someone who's drunk off of it. It's that constant wrestle of justice/mercy and boundaries all over again. Part of me wants to sit and talk with him about where he's at, how he got here...why he has nowhere else to go. My compassionate side would love to feed him and give him a place to sleep. Part of me doesn't want to have to deal with this. I want him to go away and not come back. It's not safe or good for a strange man to be sleeping on my porch, especially because there are 7 women who live in this house. Argh!

One of my biggest wrestles with justice/mercy is boundaries. And the fact that I'm a woman. I once took two men out for coffee and told them about Jesus and prayed for them. I ended up having to leave because one of the men started stroking my hand. It was not appropriate and made me completely uncomfortable. My heart desires to be able to reach these men, these people. But I'm not sure if it's fear, wisdom, boundaries or what that makes me keep my distance?!?

God I ask that you would be with this man. You know where he's been, You know where he's at and You know where he's going. I ask that You would give him a hope and a future. I ask that he would come to know you! Would you provide a house, a place to sleep and eat, a safe place for this gentleman. Amen.