Saying Thank You

This morning I took some recyclables to the community site with the 20-foot long bins. A truck driver pulled in with an empty unit, and waited as I got out of his way. Before he left I climbed up on the truck step and thanked him for the good job he and others did to keep out city more clean, and to help the environment. He was most appreciative. We had a short visit, and I left with both of us, I think, felling a bit better about life.

For many years I have found it important and rewarding to me to personally thank others for their good works, embarrassing my family at times as I engage strangers in public places. I live such a blessed life and have a desire to express my gratitude to those who help make it so. Secker said, “He enjoys much who is thankful for the little things; a grateful mind is both a great and a happy mind.”

For about 20 years I was on the international boards of some major mission agencies, such as Heifer Project and Habitat for Humanity. When we had a large dinner meeting in a hotel dining room I would, after the meal, walk boldly in the kitchen and dishwashing area, and in a very loud voice so all could hear, say something like this, “I want you to know who you have been helping tonight. Habitat for Humanity, who helps the poor of the world build houses for themselves, has been meeting in your dining room. Your wonderful meal and service has helped us to do our work well, and I want to thank you for all you have fed. You have helped the poor get more homes. Thank you again!” By that time I was usually being escorted out of the kitchen, but I left behind a group of hard working people who had received acknowledgement for their labors.

In airports when I see some lonesome soul pushing a broom and a push cart, cleaning the waiting area, I go over and visit with them a few minutes, finding  out a bit about their life, and thanking them for keeping the area so neat. It seems to me that after that I notice a bit more push in their broom and a bit more smile in their face.

Much of my work at PET is sitting at the computer writing personalized thank-you letters to each donor. We receive about 20 donations by mail a week, and I write each one a thank-you letter, including some recent reports and photos about PET. This is not only a pleasant and proper thing to do, but is one of the key ingredients of successful fund raising. I now have name recognition with PET and donors especially appreciate a personal letter from me. Without those donors there would be no PET, and I want each of them to know they are appreciated.

This morning at the grocery store I was the only one in line at the check-out. I visited with the young woman clerk, a college student, and asked about her dreams for her life. As I left I said, “You are an excellent worker here and I know you will do good in the rest of your life. Thank you for your good work.” My parents taught me to say “thank you” 80 years ago, and I still find it a proper and satisfying thing to do.

"Destiny is carried out - fate is suffered." - J. Christopher Herald

Olga

The greatest tragedy in the world, century after century, is not the wars or acts of nature that kill and destroy humankind and the ecology. The greatest tragedy in the world is the loss of human potential through greed, neglect, and the grievous acts of fellow human beings. Bob Pearce, one president of World Vision, said, “I pray that my heart may be broken by that which breaks the heart of God.”

Every child born of God comes into this world with unique gifts and graces, with potentials far beyond our fondest imaginations, but most go to their graves with their music still half in them. The heart of God must surely be broken.

Olga is so far such a person. I met Olga in Antigua, Guatemala, at a distribution of wheelchairs for the poor. Olga is the kind of person that folks notice when she comes into a room. She is attractive, vivacious, outgoing, personable, and she is wheelchair bound. If you were looking for a person to hire as a receptionist or other staff member she is one you would want to interview. At the wheelchair distribution she was a great help, remembering names, comforting those waiting in line with disabled family members, and making sure things went smoothly. She is a people person.

When I went in the van to take Olga home I saw a bigger picture of her life and problems. She lives with her parents in a barrio built on a very steep hill. The four-wheel-drive van had great difficulty negotiating the rocks and ledges to her house. The house is a dirt-floored rental house built in a unique way. Apparently the builder planned to put wooden floors in the house but never did. There is a concrete threshold a foot high between every room, meaning that Olga is confined to one room or has to be lifted over each threshold.

The house is very small, almost barren of furniture, and unpainted. Well-meaning US friends have provided paint for it, but the family is afraid to paint it, lest the owner raise the rent when they see the nicer looking house, not an uncommon practice.

So, there sits Olga, born of God with great gifts and potential, but trapped in poverty and the circumstances of her life. Barbara and I and others have helped her begin to get an education, but the very act of getting to school is a major task. At age 30-plus she has finished the equivalent of high school and has done some college work. She has many folks who care about her but so far we have been unable to put together a “package” that would equip Olga to achieve her potential. We just know it would not be there in that dirt-floored, threshold blocked, unpainted little house at the bottom of that forbidding hill.

What is Olga’s potential and God-intended destiny – to be a doctor, nurse, teacher, business leader, florist, secretary? That is yet to be discovered.

We know that life can be better for the billions of Olga’s in the world. I have seen mission projects and programs that literally turn life around for such persons. Nationwide television recently featured Beatrice, the “poster girl” for Heifer International. About 14 years ago the family of Beatrice, living in rural Uganda, then too poor to feed their children adequately or send them to school, was given a goat. The goat had kids, gave milk and became the source of new health and income. Beatrice started to school, did exceptionally well, and with the help of Heifer is now enrolled in a major US university, making top grades. A goat is probably not the answer to Olga’s problems. What is? Who is?

"The words of the prophets
are written on the subway walls
and tenement halls
and whispered
in the sounds of silence."
Paul Simon

In His Steps

During my childhood our home had a very few books, but one that deeply impressed me was “In His Steps,” a best-selling book written by Charles M. Sheldon in 1896. It was a fictional but profound story about a local church whose congregation agreed, for one year, to make no individual or corporate decisions without first asking and obeying the question, “What would Jesus do in this situation?” The story unfolded into a dramatic and profound change in the social, business and community life of that town.

In the sermon that inspired the challenge, the minister included these words: “Is it possible for the church to sing with exact truth, ‘Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee.’ If we can sing that truly, then we may claim discipleship. But if our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the privileges of worship, be generous at no expense to ourselves, have a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant friends and comfortable things, live respectfully and at the same time avoid the world’s great stress of sin and trouble because it is too much pain to bear it – if this is our definition of Christianity then we are a long way from following the steps of Him who trod the way with groans and tears and sobs of anguish for a lost humanity; who sweat, as it were, great drops of blood, who cried on the upreared cross, ‘My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?’ Are we ready to make and live a new discipleship? Are we ready to reconsider out definition of Christian?”  

 In His Steps is about a group of people who made and lived a new discipleship. One hundred years later grandson Garrett W. Sheldon, in 1997, wrote another best seller, “What would Jesus Do?” The writing inspired a number of religious knickknacks, using the “WWJD?” symbol, and at least some discussion within theological circles. Included in the grandson’s book was this:    

“I believe the time has come for us to ask ourselves some hard questions. In this self-serving age when most of us are reluctant to forgo any luxury or desire, what, on a practical level, have we denied ourselves? What cross have we borne for Christ’s sake? What suffering have we willingly endured? God’s wake-up call for some of us might be to put aside an expensive vacation or new car and follow Him in giving to those in need. For others it might be to sacrifice our social standing in order to speak out against moral compromise. The ‘cross’ you are called to bear will probably be different from mine and from that of our neighbor’s.

If you are a Christian you have been called to embark on an incredible journey – How many are willing to accept that calling? How many would rather stay comfortably asleep, untouched by the world that is dying around us?”

Some once said to a friend, “Christianity has failed. It has made no real or significant impact upon the hatred, poverty and degradations of the world. After 2,000 years of effort, it has failed.” The wise friend replied, “No, Christianity has not failed. It has yet to be tried.”

Today’s Church, I might note, does not want to hear or read sermons like those of the Sheldons. Prophetic preaching and writing is cast aside in favor of popular and “feel good” preaching. Sin is a world verboten from the pulpit in today’s popular churches. Clarence Jordan once said, “We will just worship the hind legs off of Jesus, but we won’t do a thing He says.” Jesus is praised, but not followed. To do that would take us places we do not want to go.

“How can we profess faith in God’s word and then refuse to let it inspire and direct our thinking, our activity, our decisions, and our responsibilities toward one another?” – Pope John Paul II   

The Faithful Thing

In these times when prices of many items are sky-rocketing, and checkbooks and credit cards are hard hit, how do we manage to help our sisters and brothers in need around the world, who live of less than a dollar a day, and for whom prices are also rising?

We follow God’s plan for such times, as revealed in Scripture, in the early Church, in Christian tradition, and in examples of faithful Christians, our mentors.

The members of the early Church (Acts 2) also lived in hard times. But seeing the needs of others around them they “sold all their possessions and gave to anyone, as he had ned.”

We can do that. It is the faithful thing to do.

In the second century, the church had a rule: “If your neighbor is hungry and has no food at all, an you have none to spare, then you fast for three days and give your neighbor that food.”

We can do that. It is the faithful thing to do.

John Wesley had these rules:

“Work hard, and make all you can, as long as you do not hurt someone in so doing

Live simply, and save all you can

Give all you can, to help those who are less fortunate.”

We can do that. It is a faithful thing to do.

Some years ago, I went on a Church World Service tour in Central America. On the trip I had stopped the van to take a photo of two girls pushing back the green scum on a hog pond to take to their home two kilometers away. Eight kilometers down the road I took a photo of three girls pumping cool, clean water from a well CWS had drilled in a village. It was a vivid contrast.

I showed these two slides to a group in a church at St. Charles, MO. A lady named Holt came up and asked,” What does a well cost?” I told her that where I was then working, in Dominican Republic, a well cost about $1,000. She replied, “I will send you a check for $1,000 tomorrow. I have just retired from teaching and planned to go on a two week vacation to celebrate, but I think it is more important to stay home and think of people drinking cool, clean water than it is for me to go to Hawaii.” She sent the check and the well was drilled.

We can do that. It is the faithful thing to do.

We can look at the needs of others and balance them against our own wants. The price of this lady’s trip to Hawaii was that an entire village would go without potable water. She was unwilling to pay that price.

We can pass up paying another pair of shoes and feed five hungry children for a month. We can pass up a cruise and enable a family now living in a shack to have a decent home. We can drink one less soft drink a day and put a Nicaraguan student through high school.

We can do that, and things like that. It is the faithful, biblical and logical thing to do. Christians at their best have always acted like that, right?