I can't let it go...

I know that most people don't read a blog if it is over 500 words. This one will probably be too long for most of you to read. Know this, we can all do more. If you don't ever get anything else out of what I write please get this: we all need to do more to help our fellow man.

I am currently sitting in my office getting ready for service tonight. I know that when I am done closing up the coffee shop tonight I will go home to my apartment. I will go into an apartment where I have all the food I need, a bed to sleep in, a shower, clean dishes and way more clothes than I need.

I know that I am blessed, blessed beyond what I deserve. There is something stirring in me and it has been stirring for a while. I'm not sure exactly what it is and I have had a really hard time putting it into words. I'm not sure that today, right now is the right place or the right time but let's see how this turns out.

In the past few months I have run into some interesting people. I have read some interesting books and articles. There seems to be a thread running through my life and the lives of those I am coming into contact with. That thread seems to be a willingness to sacrifice.

Last week I found a blog, by accident, of a college student who is living on the streets. He chose to be homeless and is planning on living out of his van for the next year. I found a video online of a group of teens that spent 40 hours on the street with no possessions and no where to go. They had to search for food and sleep on the ground. I saw another video of a group that went down to Louisiana and spent a few days passing out food and clothing to the homeless and the poor in that area.

Those are the people I don't know in places I don't live. There have been some real experiences for me here in Arkansas lately too. I am making more friends that seem to not be concerned with stuff and holding onto things. I have started going downtown consistently with a small group and passing out water and a few things to the people on the streets here. We have made some new friends and last night was one of my "favorite" trips downtown (if you can have a favorite trip). We saw some of our friends we hadn't seen in a few weeks, we exchanged phone numbers with a couple of the homeless people and told them we would get a hold of them next time we come downtown.

We will be back and we will try to get a hold of them. If we see them all again it will be because they are still on the street. They still don't have jobs and they still don't have homes. That is a hard concept for me to deal with.

I know that a lot of them are on the street because of their own choices and addictions. That is not up for debate. The thing that gets to me is that it was so easy for us to get to know them. It took us showing up and spending an hour with them one night. Ever since that night we have been friends. We know each other by name and when they see us coming they come out of where ever they are to say hello. The water and the food are less important than they were that first night. We talk about our week and we laugh at each others jokes. We are really friends, maybe not "close" friends but we are friends.

I want to do more. On my second trip to downtown Little Rock to see the same group of people I had an interesting conversation. A gentleman who calls himself "Smiley" asked me if I knew his friend. She lived in Bryant and he thought we might know each other. I said I didn't know her. He then proceeded to tell me about her. He said she comes down with her van and takes a group back to her house. They shower, clean up and get on fresh clothes. Then they all go to the mall in Conway. He told me it was a lot of fun because the people there don't know they are homeless. He said it was great to spend a couple of house being treated like a regular person instead of a homeless person. He looked me right in the eye and said, "People treat you different when they know you are homeless."

That broke my heart. Does having a home make me a better person than someone who doesn't have one? Do my things make me more important that someone who doesn't have things? Does the fact that I may be able to help you if you needed help make me someone who you want to know? "Smiley" has issues. He is on medication for a few things, but he is a lot of fun to talk to. He carries on great conversations, he is smart and seems to be fairly well educated. He used to own his own business, he was a home owner and he had a family. Now he expects people to treat him like less than a person. He knows that he is not going to get the respect of a "normal person" when he goes around town. He is not bitter, he isn't angry, he knows he made poor choices and that is why he is where he is today.

So what is it that I can't let go? I want to know how much more I could be doing. I want to know how I can help the people I have met...and more than that how I can help the people that are worse off than them!

The people who live on the streets in America still eat better than a large portion of the people in the world today. What am I going to do to help the people who actually don't have the ability to help themselves? I am still working on that. I will come up with a way, I will come up with an answer to the question that is eating at me. When I do I will ask you for your help. This isn't something just for me, this is a global problem with a global solution. For now I am asking you to look around. Open your eyes to the needs that are around you. Do something today.

It only matters if it happens to someone I know...

"The American response to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, demonstrated that large-scale evil and suffering usually remain distant from us.

In Sudan, millions, including children, have been murdered, raped, and enslaved. The 2004 Asian tsunami killed more than 280,000 people. Malaria causes more than two million fatalities annually, the majority of them African children. Around the world, some 26,500 children die every day; eighteen every minute.

The loss of American lives in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, numbered 2,973–horrible indeed, yet a small fraction of the terror and loss of life faced daily around the world. The death toll in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, for example, amounted to more than two World Trade Center disasters every day for one hundred days straight. Americans discovered in one day what much of the world already knew–violent death comes quickly, hits hard, and can be unspeakably dreadful." -Randy Alcorn from his book "If God is so Good"

Do you remember how the whole country started praying after 9-11? People were looking for answers. They were banding together. We were going to stop anyone from coming on American soil and taking innocent lives! That was almost 9 years ago, but this was passion that was not supposed to wear off. What happened? Take a look around you and think for a minute about what really matters to you. How often are you concerned about what is happening outside of the United States? Honestly how often are you concerned with things that happen at all if they don't have any direct affect on you or someone you know?


People are worried about the economy right now. They aren't worried about the economy because they are really concerned for the people who don't have jobs at the moment. They are concerned because an unstable job market could cost them their job! When the housing market collapsed people were concerned. I talked to a lot of people about it. Almost all of them still had their job and were still able to make their house payment just fine. The problem was that now their house would be worth less money. They might not be able to refinance so that they could pay off their credit cards.


People are selfish. This is not a secret. It isn't something that we talk about very much because when we talk about it we have to take a look in the mirror. We don't like to look at ourselves and say WE are selfish.
The problem is that we truly are a selfish people in a country that fosters selfish attitudes.


This is something that has bothered me for a long time. I have done what I could, which to this point hasn't seemed like much, to get people to see that they are only living for themselves and their own desires. If what I am saying is not true then do me a favor. Everyone who is reading this right now, talk to all of your family and friends. Decide what your favorite charity is and instead of getting any birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Father's Day, Mother's Day...etc. presents, have them donate whatever money they would have spent on your gift to your favorite charity. 


What? You don't like that idea? Why not? Why do you need more stuff? Why do you need extra things to go in your house when their are people who won't be alive tomorrow if they don't get help from someone? I have had people tell me that we shouldn't help those who won't help themselves. Then you pick a charity that only helps people who can't help themselves. Pick one that helps orphans in a third-world country. Pick one that helps villages get clean drinking water. I don't care who you want to help, I just wanted to show you that you are selfish to some degree. 


Here is my dilemma in writing this post. Now this year for my birthday, I expect no gifts. I am going to spend the next couple of months coming up with what charity I would like to support. I will find one that is easy to donate to and that I believe in. I will have anyone who wants to get me anything (which now that I am an adult, the list is getting shorter every year) donate to that specific charity. I will have the person who draws my name this year for the family Christmas gift exchange donate money to a charity and not send me a gift card. 


Why haven't I talked about things like this before? If this is truly something that bothers me then what has been holding me back? One reason is that it sounds self-righteous. It sounds like I am telling you that you are selfish and that I am not. That is simply not the case. I have never told anyone to donate money instead of send me a present. I might not be worried about "stuff" but I have not done all the good I could have done. I am starting right now. I am going to change some things about how casually I have lived my life up to this point.


If you are not ready to lay down your desire for things then that is something you have to live with. I'm not telling anyone what they have to do. I'm just saying that if we do nothing then we are selfish. If we don't change then we will never make a difference to people who need help.


Some of you who read this will be Christians, while I know some of you are not. Let me talk to the Christians first.


I do believe that as a Christian we should be more worried about our neighbor than we are about ourselves. I think we should give more, care more, show love more than anyone else. The problem is that I don't see it. I know there are the exceptions to the rule...but it is time to adjust the rule. The Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive...but do we live that way? Do we live the picture we see of the church in Acts where it says that none of them considered anything to be their own and if someone had a need they would sell what they had and meet that need. Are we doing that today? Why not? We're selfish. Almost all of us are selfish to some degree. I was told that I had to start being nicer when I speak to people. I am challenging them too much and telling them that they aren't doing a good enough job. Well the way I see it, I am telling the truth. If you don't want to hear the truth then don't read what I have to say and don't come listen to me speak. If I don't challenge you then I don't really care about you.


Now to those of you who are not Christians. You may or may not care about what I think of you. Please know that I care about you. I care enough to say that I want you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. That being said I don't believe that only Christians need to give more. I believe that everyone should do more, I just expect more out of people who say they believe what I believe. If you don't want to give to anyone else, that is sad. Here is the thing though, I know some of you who read this really do care for people. I know you volunteer your time and donate your money. I just want to see it more. Not for my sake and not in the hope that one day you will earn your way into me thinking you are a good person. I really care for the people all over the world that are dying tonight because we in America didn't step up and do something about it. That is not a Christian/non-Christian issue. It is a rich/poor issue. It is a have/have-not issue. We are the rich, we are the one's who have. It is time to give something to those who so desperately need it.