I have many articles that are partially complete and waiting in the wings to be finished and posted. Much of what I write is related to my passion for triathlon and also living life coram Deo - before the “face of God.” Often (and during the weirdest times such as while I’m in the pool or on a flight), a past experience will pop into my head and begin to form itself into an idea for a post. The following is the product of one of those occasions.
A small warning: what you’re about to read may not be easy to take; in fact it will most likely get under your skin…but it may change how you look at the world even if just a little bit, and I hope for the better.
There is a verse in the Bible that says “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty only comes to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5). The meaning of this proverb is well known even in non-religious circles, more commonly as the phrase “There are no get-rich-quick schemes.” It is hard to disagree with such common sense about how to manage money. Consistent and disciplined investments have always increased in value over the long term. The keys are the words consistent and disciplined – consistent meaning “steady” and disciplined meaning “controlled”, especially if you don’t feel like it or it’s not “convenient.” These are tried and true principles that constantly prove themselves out in a universal sense, not just in the world of money.
While only a few things in life such as death and taxes are guaranteed, at this season of our lives Steve and I are realizing the fruits of decisions (many of them not easy) made 20+ years ago regarding our finances. We long ago learned hard lessons about the difference between needs and wants, both of us growing up in environments where often we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from, let alone the resources to splurge on things like college without help from the government.
The net-net of it all is that we still carry those values with us today – being true to the difference between needs and wants, and using our financial literacy to make sound decisions that benefit not only us but more importantly those around us as well.
There is so much brokenness around us, sometimes more than we can stand, or perhaps care to get involved in…
Steve and I were brought face to face with wretched human suffering on a scale we’ve never previously witnessed when we visited India 3 years ago. I went there on a work assignment and some accumulated air miles thrown in made it possible for Steve to accompany me as well.
Pictures don’t do it justice. The moment we stepped off the plane, the smell nearly knocked us over. The city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) does not have the infrastructures in place for waste disposal, trash collection, water treatment, and pollution control that we have in our country. We both wept silently in the cab from the airport to the hotel. Literally hundreds of people were sleeping on sidewalks or dirt mounds that were clearly their domiciles, as we could plainly see rope strung occasionally between two trees and clothing or pots/pans hanging from them. A nearby river functioned simultaneously as both a waste collection area and a source of drinking water. One morning we personally witnessed the horrific death of a peasant woman as she was trying to cross a road full of traffic. Her body was cut in half by a speeding construction truck and no one seemed to care. In fact the driver was in an argument with another motorist presumably over further stalling the flow of traffic. The human life that had just been carelessly snuffed out was nearly a non-issue.
We spent a month there and I cannot go into every detail of the heartbreaking poverty that was up in our face every day. I can say we came back changed people, with firsthand experience of the utter depravity and hopelessness to which human nature can descend.
So when the woman approached us a few months ago as we were crossing the street in the Central West End area of St. Louis, headed to dinner at a nice restaurant, we knew instantly that she was looking for a handout. She was dressed shabbily and clearly wanting money…”a dollar so I can get a bus ride…” is what she said. She wasn’t rude but it was clear she’d done this before.
I knew what she wanted was money to get Lord knows what, but we weren’t there to give her what she wanted. This was no random occurrence. God’s providence had brought us together “for such a time as this” to give her something she needed…even more than money….and that was dignity and hope. Without thinking too much about it, I offered her to come to dinner with us. Steve and I have had numerous (too many to count) non-verbal exchanges, the kind where no words are necessary and you’re both on the same page, and you know it; this was one of those times -- we both knew it was the right thing to do.
The woman seemed taken aback, as if no one had ever spontaneously offered her a hot (and really nice) meal instead of a harsh word or money to make her go away and relieve the person’s discomfort with human suffering so in-your-face. She cautiously followed us into the restaurant and I sensed she might not want to embarrass herself by sitting at the white linen tables or have awkward conversation with two strangers she had been begging from just minutes before. So I offered her the option of sitting at the bar where they served a complete menu for folks wanting to sip a drink with a friend or enjoy a quiet dinner alone.
She decided to sit at the bar, and I instructed the bartender to let her order whatever 2 items she wanted from the menu as an appetizer and an entrée, and then offer her whatever she would like to drink. I told him we would pick up the tab when we were finished with our own dinner.
We ate in a different area of the restaurant and she was gone by the time we were leaving. I wondered if she just bailed after our invitation, but the bartender said she enjoyed a really nice meal and had just recently left. We paid the check and I was surprised to see he was taken aback by our apparently random generosity – but his smile said it all.
We all need it and many of us don’t have it – dignity and hope. Sure many of us drive around in our SUVs, live prosperous lives in our suburban homes, and give the best years of our lives preparing our children for adulthood and its responsibilities. It’s easy to find brokenness in the inner cities. However in the squeaky clean of suburbia, brokenness is just as rampant, and we simply do a fine job of masking it with money. The problems are the same: drugs, promiscuity, teen pregnancies, broken marriages, financial hardship, the list goes on.
How we live our lives every day speaks volumes about where our hearts really are. Don’t get me wrong – I am not against people having nice stuff and it might surprise you to learn the Bible does NOT condemn prosperity. God has no issue with us having money – as long as money doesn’t have us. We live in the greatest and richest country in the world. My passport is literally FILLED with stamps from the many other cultures I’ve experienced, and I’m convinced that despite our problems, there is no more beautiful, diverse, or abundant place on earth. God has already blessed America. So do we invest the lion’s share of our time in the here and now in the latest things we want that soon fade with the passing of time? Or do we make the ultimate investment, one that pays eternal dividends, and invest in people – with all the brokenness that comes along with them?
Funny, Jesus did just that…
A small warning: what you’re about to read may not be easy to take; in fact it will most likely get under your skin…but it may change how you look at the world even if just a little bit, and I hope for the better.
There is a verse in the Bible that says “The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty only comes to poverty” (Proverbs 21:5). The meaning of this proverb is well known even in non-religious circles, more commonly as the phrase “There are no get-rich-quick schemes.” It is hard to disagree with such common sense about how to manage money. Consistent and disciplined investments have always increased in value over the long term. The keys are the words consistent and disciplined – consistent meaning “steady” and disciplined meaning “controlled”, especially if you don’t feel like it or it’s not “convenient.” These are tried and true principles that constantly prove themselves out in a universal sense, not just in the world of money.
While only a few things in life such as death and taxes are guaranteed, at this season of our lives Steve and I are realizing the fruits of decisions (many of them not easy) made 20+ years ago regarding our finances. We long ago learned hard lessons about the difference between needs and wants, both of us growing up in environments where often we didn’t know where our next meal was coming from, let alone the resources to splurge on things like college without help from the government.
The net-net of it all is that we still carry those values with us today – being true to the difference between needs and wants, and using our financial literacy to make sound decisions that benefit not only us but more importantly those around us as well.
There is so much brokenness around us, sometimes more than we can stand, or perhaps care to get involved in…
Steve and I were brought face to face with wretched human suffering on a scale we’ve never previously witnessed when we visited India 3 years ago. I went there on a work assignment and some accumulated air miles thrown in made it possible for Steve to accompany me as well.
Pictures don’t do it justice. The moment we stepped off the plane, the smell nearly knocked us over. The city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay) does not have the infrastructures in place for waste disposal, trash collection, water treatment, and pollution control that we have in our country. We both wept silently in the cab from the airport to the hotel. Literally hundreds of people were sleeping on sidewalks or dirt mounds that were clearly their domiciles, as we could plainly see rope strung occasionally between two trees and clothing or pots/pans hanging from them. A nearby river functioned simultaneously as both a waste collection area and a source of drinking water. One morning we personally witnessed the horrific death of a peasant woman as she was trying to cross a road full of traffic. Her body was cut in half by a speeding construction truck and no one seemed to care. In fact the driver was in an argument with another motorist presumably over further stalling the flow of traffic. The human life that had just been carelessly snuffed out was nearly a non-issue.
We spent a month there and I cannot go into every detail of the heartbreaking poverty that was up in our face every day. I can say we came back changed people, with firsthand experience of the utter depravity and hopelessness to which human nature can descend.
So when the woman approached us a few months ago as we were crossing the street in the Central West End area of St. Louis, headed to dinner at a nice restaurant, we knew instantly that she was looking for a handout. She was dressed shabbily and clearly wanting money…”a dollar so I can get a bus ride…” is what she said. She wasn’t rude but it was clear she’d done this before.
I knew what she wanted was money to get Lord knows what, but we weren’t there to give her what she wanted. This was no random occurrence. God’s providence had brought us together “for such a time as this” to give her something she needed…even more than money….and that was dignity and hope. Without thinking too much about it, I offered her to come to dinner with us. Steve and I have had numerous (too many to count) non-verbal exchanges, the kind where no words are necessary and you’re both on the same page, and you know it; this was one of those times -- we both knew it was the right thing to do.
The woman seemed taken aback, as if no one had ever spontaneously offered her a hot (and really nice) meal instead of a harsh word or money to make her go away and relieve the person’s discomfort with human suffering so in-your-face. She cautiously followed us into the restaurant and I sensed she might not want to embarrass herself by sitting at the white linen tables or have awkward conversation with two strangers she had been begging from just minutes before. So I offered her the option of sitting at the bar where they served a complete menu for folks wanting to sip a drink with a friend or enjoy a quiet dinner alone.
She decided to sit at the bar, and I instructed the bartender to let her order whatever 2 items she wanted from the menu as an appetizer and an entrée, and then offer her whatever she would like to drink. I told him we would pick up the tab when we were finished with our own dinner.
We ate in a different area of the restaurant and she was gone by the time we were leaving. I wondered if she just bailed after our invitation, but the bartender said she enjoyed a really nice meal and had just recently left. We paid the check and I was surprised to see he was taken aback by our apparently random generosity – but his smile said it all.
We all need it and many of us don’t have it – dignity and hope. Sure many of us drive around in our SUVs, live prosperous lives in our suburban homes, and give the best years of our lives preparing our children for adulthood and its responsibilities. It’s easy to find brokenness in the inner cities. However in the squeaky clean of suburbia, brokenness is just as rampant, and we simply do a fine job of masking it with money. The problems are the same: drugs, promiscuity, teen pregnancies, broken marriages, financial hardship, the list goes on.
How we live our lives every day speaks volumes about where our hearts really are. Don’t get me wrong – I am not against people having nice stuff and it might surprise you to learn the Bible does NOT condemn prosperity. God has no issue with us having money – as long as money doesn’t have us. We live in the greatest and richest country in the world. My passport is literally FILLED with stamps from the many other cultures I’ve experienced, and I’m convinced that despite our problems, there is no more beautiful, diverse, or abundant place on earth. God has already blessed America. So do we invest the lion’s share of our time in the here and now in the latest things we want that soon fade with the passing of time? Or do we make the ultimate investment, one that pays eternal dividends, and invest in people – with all the brokenness that comes along with them?
Funny, Jesus did just that…
2 comments:
Yes, this is deep, Catherine, but I did enjoy it immensely. Thanks for sharing and making sure we keep our eyes open and live our lives in the best way we can and know how. Jen H.
Catherine
Lots of thoughts come to mind after reading this. I think I hit "post a comment" four times before actually writing something as my mind changed as to what to write! So, instead of writing and deleting more lines of words, I'll just say great blog. :)
Kristin M.
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