Recently I ponder in my heart, value! It is an endless thought that has made many turns. I still have not found the answer, if there is one? But worthy, maybe, of saying out loud, or in my case blogging. How can you teach folks to value some material thing if they do not value their own selves? We give a toy in the programs and 20 minutes after I leave I find the remains of those items crushed on the sidewalk, never to be used again. There was such joy to recieve and to give the toys but it is short lived after the toy and it's new owner left the building. Hats, gloves, shoes, clothes given, to never be seen again. As I walk and pick up the remains scattered on the sidewalk I wonder why I even bother but on the other hand and more important, how do I teach these kids that there is something not right about just tossing what someone gave them on the ground? People basically do what they are taught and isn't there something that is deeper going on than throwing a toy away?
Want Everything, Value Nothing!?
Recently I have made a couple visits to a family outside of Medgidia. A family of eight with a 4 room home. All but one sleep in the same room with 3 beds bumped up to each other. (including the parents) They sleep, eat, play, watch TV and on the last visit they moved their stove in that room. Why they don't use the rest of the house, I can't figure out. The family, is falling apart in every way. The kids have not attended school in 2 years, the mom is overwhelmed with life and the dad, I don't know much about him. He works and they recieve money from the State and his employment. Although it is not much money for a family of 8 it is sufficient to live. Their electric is not working because they did not pay the bill, the stove has some sort of black carbon coming from it when they cook, a simple thing will fix it and still that can't seem to get out of the hole they got into over time. We bring school supplies, shoes, socks, food and as we distribute the new supplies they toss the clothes where they land if they don't like them, walk over the old bags and notebooks like it is part of the floor, they come in and out of the room and walk across the bed as if it was part of the floor too. As the sun shines through the window, I can see particles of dust flying at every step across the mattress.
Want Everything, Value nothing!?
After the afternoon program, I give a half loaf of bread and a pound of salami left over from the program to one of the kids who comes and helps me prepare the food. She herself lives in a family of 13, ages from 20 to 1. They live in a house, if you can call a 2 room place this. She is 14, I suspect, there is no record of birth and she doesn't know and no one else for that matter knows. That says volumes right there. Knowing she is at home with many children and the parents, they say, are in Italy working, I give the bread and salami for her to take to the others in her family. I feel really good about this and seems she does too. However, the next day I found out that she took the food and ate a couple pieces of bread for herself and dumped the rest of it on the ground. When confronted she admitted to it. I only felt sad for her and spoke with her about this and then gave her the food left over from that days program.
Want Everything, Value Nothing!?
Am I creating a bigger problem? I am teaching value? Some days, I just don't know. Am I hurting the very people I say I am helping because I feel good to give something? I can go on and tell more stories similar to these but let's think about this..
Right before I began to write this, I surfed the net for the American Black Friday sales! To tell you the truth, I wanted to buy everything, well, almost everything. Knowing I can't have it all and it is to hard to get all the way over here and who has the funds to buy everything? So in some ways don't we all want stuff. But what makes us different? Do we value what we have or do we just want more. I think many of us purchase, receive or even give something (to make us feel better) and many of those things are on a shelf, basement or garage. What makes that any different than throwing it on the street or walking over it like it was part of the floor?
Hey! Now I am even starting to feel bad, but that is not the point! Maybe the point is that it is not the things we throw, store or put away...It is that we,us, people are the value not the things. The value is the investment in people and relationships and isn't that why we give whether it is material or time? It is an investment into our life and others. Wanting everything and getting everything does not make us more valuable, you are the value, just you alone, with nothing! God loves us when we have something and when we have nothing. All of us! The same! Everything or nothing! He loves us! Maybe the lesson in all this is to...
Value Everything, Want Nothing!?
