As a homeless friend texted me late at night (yes, she has a pay-as-yougo phone), the longer she sent messages, I realized the dissatisfaction she felt at her circumstances and place in her current walk. It’s as she wept with those messages that fell from her fingers through the phone, and her soul became captured in words showing up on my phone. She unloaded the hurts and concerns, and those issues made her lash out at me even though I was not the enemy.

I reacted with encouragement, hoping to...