Understand?

Rachel Pittman
Sep 28, 2018
2 min read

I have been infatuated with the idea behind behavioral geography for a really long time. However, it was a foreign concept that I couldn't fully comprehend at such a young age. I was utterly oblivious to it's proper name, history and layers of complexity. I understood- in a way that someone my age shouldn't- that the way a person acts and processes information had to somehow be influenced by their environment.

I later came to understand that behavioral geography is: an approach to human geography that attempts to understand human activity in space, place, and environment by studying it at the disaggregate level of analysis- at the level of the individual person. In short, behavioral geography studies a person's mind and behavior based on their location.

"I am Lucas and I live on the streets." > "I am homeless."

That was when I realized that the Lord had been doing a work in my life since I was very young- to understand inner-city people and love on them. But inner-city people are a whole different case study, especially in New York. Not that they are better or worse than any other sub-culture, just different, and all I've been asked to do is hear them.

8.55 million civilians live their lives in a 468.48 sq. mile concrete box. You can travel all over the world, experiencing over 1,000 different cultures, without ever leaving the box. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Atheists and Agnostics ride along side each other in subway cars. The wealthy step over the poor to get to work on time and young people deal to pay for rent and the next meal.

Just because someone falls victim to their circumstances, does not mean they are defined by the world around them. How many times do we assume someone's story based on their cover? The Lord did not tell me to assume but to listen to understand. Since moving to New York City and finally shutting up, something profound has been revealed to me: Homelessness is a location, not a Identification Card. Be reminded that even though location molds, shapes, and influences, those persons worth is rooted in Christ Jesus.