I was sitting in the school library, speechless at what I just heard. Not that amazed kind of speechless or that wind-knocked-out-of-you speechless. It was more like a sympathetic kind of speechless. For the last couple of days I have been working with a nonprofit, service organization called Wings for L.I.F.E based in Roswell, New Mexico. They work primarily with children whose parents have been in and out of jail or come from situations where their family is usually incarcerated. As an aspiring psychologist, being objective is key; you can't let stuff get to you, or so I've been told. And for the record I'm pretty good at it.
But not this time.
All the kids were leaving or were being picked up from the program except three siblings. As some of the volunteer helpers were giving them some supplies for school, I asked about their story so I could get a baseline of what kind of problems they were facing. Their story: no parents, no family, in and out of jail themselves (some had multiple arrests by the age of 10), and they were sleeping on the floor of their grandparent's living room with little food in the house and no school supplies. This is how they will spend Thanksgiving this year.
This week, I've had the humbling privilege of working with kids like this. Never have I ever had to worry about where the next meal will come from, who if anyone will remember to pick me up from school, or how I will avoid getting abused. Never have I ever had to think if I will make it to adulthood and never have I ever had to worry about what options if any I will have once I make it there. Never have I ever had to worry about knowing what I was thankful for during Thanksgiving. But most of these kids do.
Never have I ever had to worry about being thankful. I used to think that not being thankful for something meant I was a selfish kid, but this week has challenged me - what if you have a hard time being thankful for anything because you have been given nothing to be thankful for in the first place? Most of these kids I got to work with don't know the saving grace of Jesus Christ, or have a family that cares, or even have a family at all. They ache for attention, they long for someone to love them, but they never get either. One girl was so wanting attention that she would bite herself and show off her wounds to get attention - she was 7. Another girl lost her mother the year before in a traffic accident that could have been avoided - she was 10. One boy's father was incarcerated for gang related behavior which made him weary of all men and possibly even weary of trusting in God - he was 9. These kids will have a hard time knowing what to be thankful for this year, if anything. Me? I'll have hard time finding something to not be thankful for.
So, listening to the story of the siblings without a home made me speechless. But what made me speechless wasn't that these kids necessarily came from a broken home, albeit it is very tough to hear. What made me speechless was that despite these kids coming from some of the worst situations imaginable, they still found something to be thankful for. They still found something to be thankful for something. As we went around in a circle saying what we were thankful for, I wondered what these kids would say. What did they say when I asked them what they were thankful for?
"I'm thankful for you."
What a humbling statement!
What are you thankful for this year? I am thankful for a lot of things, more things than I think I could count. If you're like me, then you might have a hard time this year finding something to not be thankful for. For some people, it might be hard to find something at all to be thankful for this year. But if God has taught me anything about thanksgiving, it is that the simplest act of compassion, the simplest act of attention, or the simplest act of care that you give someone might be the thing they're most thankful for this year.
Just as our Savior's act of compassion on the cross is the most love this world has ever seen!
And for that, I'm thankful.
KB
You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God -2 Corinthians 9:11
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Hero for a Day
This is a narrative I wrote several months ago and entered it into a national contest on satire and humor writing. I have no idea how it did because, unfortunately, I forgot the name of the contest and I'm pretty sure I gave them the wrong email address for more information on the contest. Subsequently, this satire is out there, lost in a sea of other internet stories and poetic quips without names. Moral of the story - write things down! But I remembered I have a blog and so I put it up on here for your reading pleasure. It's not my usual type of post, but I hope you enjoy it's twist!
"Hero for a Day"
In a far-away village
Next to the town of Dool,
Was a knight named Dillage
Who was never mistaken for a fool.
He was a dashingly handsome man
With a dashingly handsome plan
That would make him hero for the day.
In a castle lay his prize,
Guarded by fearsome ghouls,
A princess with shimmering eyes
Which shined like jewels!
To the castle he'd take flight
And save the princess that night
That would prove him hero for the day.
Upon trusty steed,
Sir Dillage rode across the plains
So he might carry out the deed
Which would win his acclaim.
The townsfolk would adore him
And the Princess would love him
And he'd become hero for the day.
"S-s-s-stop! Who goes there?"
Said a timid voice from behind the castle wall.
"I, Sir Dillage am here,
To save the princess from that tower that is so tall!
The dragon I will slay
And villains too, I might just say,
And become hero for the day!"
Just then, from behind the wall
Came little Leroy, the grounds keeper
Who was barely five feet tall
But the land's biggest pip-squeaker!
At Leroy, Sir Dillage did laugh,
For he was just a runt, small & daft
And wouldn't stop him from being hero for the day.
As Dillage went past with a shove,
Leroy began to cry,
For the princess he did love
And save her he dare not try.
For he was a weak, young lad
And fighting skills he did not have
To be hero for a day.
As hours ticked & minutes passed,
Leroy knew what would happen.
That Dillage would come back fast
With the princess in good fashion.
Only Dillage would the princess adore
And have need for Leroy no more
And Sir Dillage would be hero for a day.
But lo-and-behold
Sir Dillage came back by himself!
And unlike Dillage was told,
There wasn't any wealth.
He rode by angrily
And gave Leroy the foulest look as can be,
For he wasn't hero for the day.
"I knew it!" Leroy shouted.
"The princess loved me after all!
Her love for me was not doubted
I'll go to her, to that tower so tall."
Up the steps he climbed,
Rehearsing what he'd say so it would rhyme,
Because he'd become hero for the day.
But as he burst through the tower door,
Things were different than he thought.
The princess nagged Leroy to the floor;
She was just a dreadful snot!
It was either her dress wasn't pretty enough
Or the sun on her skin was too rough
And she always demanded her hero for the day.
It is no surprise Leroy didn't last.
NO ONE could take the princess for long.
He fled the castle fast
So his life he'd prolong.
From afar she was a buttercup,
But there was a reason she was locked up,
And never found her hero for the day!
KB
"Better to live on the corner of the roof than in the house with a quarrelsome wife." -Proverbs 21:9
"Hero for a Day"
In a far-away village
Next to the town of Dool,
Was a knight named Dillage
Who was never mistaken for a fool.
He was a dashingly handsome man
With a dashingly handsome plan
That would make him hero for the day.
In a castle lay his prize,
Guarded by fearsome ghouls,
A princess with shimmering eyes
Which shined like jewels!
To the castle he'd take flight
And save the princess that night
That would prove him hero for the day.
Upon trusty steed,
Sir Dillage rode across the plains
So he might carry out the deed
Which would win his acclaim.
The townsfolk would adore him
And the Princess would love him
And he'd become hero for the day.
"S-s-s-stop! Who goes there?"
Said a timid voice from behind the castle wall.
"I, Sir Dillage am here,
To save the princess from that tower that is so tall!
The dragon I will slay
And villains too, I might just say,
And become hero for the day!"
Just then, from behind the wall
Came little Leroy, the grounds keeper
Who was barely five feet tall
But the land's biggest pip-squeaker!
At Leroy, Sir Dillage did laugh,
For he was just a runt, small & daft
And wouldn't stop him from being hero for the day.
As Dillage went past with a shove,
Leroy began to cry,
For the princess he did love
And save her he dare not try.
For he was a weak, young lad
And fighting skills he did not have
To be hero for a day.
As hours ticked & minutes passed,
Leroy knew what would happen.
That Dillage would come back fast
With the princess in good fashion.
Only Dillage would the princess adore
And have need for Leroy no more
And Sir Dillage would be hero for a day.
But lo-and-behold
Sir Dillage came back by himself!
And unlike Dillage was told,
There wasn't any wealth.
He rode by angrily
And gave Leroy the foulest look as can be,
For he wasn't hero for the day.
"I knew it!" Leroy shouted.
"The princess loved me after all!
Her love for me was not doubted
I'll go to her, to that tower so tall."
Up the steps he climbed,
Rehearsing what he'd say so it would rhyme,
Because he'd become hero for the day.
But as he burst through the tower door,
Things were different than he thought.
The princess nagged Leroy to the floor;
She was just a dreadful snot!
It was either her dress wasn't pretty enough
Or the sun on her skin was too rough
And she always demanded her hero for the day.
It is no surprise Leroy didn't last.
NO ONE could take the princess for long.
He fled the castle fast
So his life he'd prolong.
From afar she was a buttercup,
But there was a reason she was locked up,
And never found her hero for the day!
KB
"Better to live on the corner of the roof than in the house with a quarrelsome wife." -Proverbs 21:9
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Lightbulbs
Fifty-five thousand fans screamed all around me at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas at the Texas Tech/Missouri game this week. For the first time in, well, a long time, Texas Tech actually played good football! We aren't known for our pristine record mind you, so an opportunity to scream and yell and actually see results down on the field, well that's just rewarding. However, during the lulling moments of the game where nothing spectacular was going on or our quarterback dropped yet another pass too far to the left, I sat there thinking, particularly about light bulbs. Those really massive, gigantic lightbulbs that power stadium lights and signal airplanes to stay away from the tops of towers or tall buildings. Those kind of lightbulbs.
Who changes those?
It's the age old joke, "How many ____ does it take to change lightbulb?" Like, "How many joke writers does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: Two hundred but don't ask why, we haven't figured it out." Or, "How many Church of Christ elders does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: 'Change? Who wants to change?'" (compliments of my Bible professor). I'll spare you any more lame jokes. But in all truth, how many men does it take to change that lightbulb way up at the top of, say, the Empire State Building? Answer: just one.
Last guy I found who did it was a guy by the name of Deke Johnson. He was paid (substantially I hope) to climb over 1,300 feet (that's over a quarter of a mile) up in the air to the very top of the Empire State Building and change the lightbulb that signals planes and helicopters to stay away from hitting the building. The bulb he used was over 600 watts, the size of a grapefruit. The fun part is, of course, the last 80 foot climb where all he had to climb on were pencil-sized bolts. This is a job that I'm sure requires life insurance as a prerequisite.
One must get to thinking a quarter of a mile up there, above literally everything else. The view is phenomenal, the job is exhilarating, the story is one of a kind. This man, whom you've probably never heard of before, has seen the world from an angle that you and I will probably never get to see, at lengths you and I will most likely never go to see it. And even though you've never heard of Deke Johnson until now, his job has probably saved countless lives, ensuring aircraft don't accidentally hit the building. Likewise, we as Christians play an interesting role in this life, one that is unique to us in our respective perspectives and lengths. We each have been given a light, the light of Salvation, and are given the job to use that light to save and help others. We may not gain great recognition, we may not gain great acclaim, we may not even get great benefits from it ourselves. However, what we do with that life might save others and help us see the world from a greater perspective than we've ever seen it before.
So, this week, may you go great lengths and travel the heights in order to share your light. Salvation is a gift that we've been given with the intention that we share it with the rest of the world. Sharing it will be the most fulfilling thing you've ever done, I assure you. The journey you embark on to do so will be unique and special to you - it will be a journey built for you, with specific challenges and triumph that you can testify to. Furthermore, it will allow you to see the world like you've never seen it before. May you enjoy sharing the light of Salvation with the world, and enjoy the view from up top!
KB
"You are the light on a hill. A city that cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14
Who changes those?
It's the age old joke, "How many ____ does it take to change lightbulb?" Like, "How many joke writers does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: Two hundred but don't ask why, we haven't figured it out." Or, "How many Church of Christ elders does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer: 'Change? Who wants to change?'" (compliments of my Bible professor). I'll spare you any more lame jokes. But in all truth, how many men does it take to change that lightbulb way up at the top of, say, the Empire State Building? Answer: just one.
Last guy I found who did it was a guy by the name of Deke Johnson. He was paid (substantially I hope) to climb over 1,300 feet (that's over a quarter of a mile) up in the air to the very top of the Empire State Building and change the lightbulb that signals planes and helicopters to stay away from hitting the building. The bulb he used was over 600 watts, the size of a grapefruit. The fun part is, of course, the last 80 foot climb where all he had to climb on were pencil-sized bolts. This is a job that I'm sure requires life insurance as a prerequisite.
One must get to thinking a quarter of a mile up there, above literally everything else. The view is phenomenal, the job is exhilarating, the story is one of a kind. This man, whom you've probably never heard of before, has seen the world from an angle that you and I will probably never get to see, at lengths you and I will most likely never go to see it. And even though you've never heard of Deke Johnson until now, his job has probably saved countless lives, ensuring aircraft don't accidentally hit the building. Likewise, we as Christians play an interesting role in this life, one that is unique to us in our respective perspectives and lengths. We each have been given a light, the light of Salvation, and are given the job to use that light to save and help others. We may not gain great recognition, we may not gain great acclaim, we may not even get great benefits from it ourselves. However, what we do with that life might save others and help us see the world from a greater perspective than we've ever seen it before.
So, this week, may you go great lengths and travel the heights in order to share your light. Salvation is a gift that we've been given with the intention that we share it with the rest of the world. Sharing it will be the most fulfilling thing you've ever done, I assure you. The journey you embark on to do so will be unique and special to you - it will be a journey built for you, with specific challenges and triumph that you can testify to. Furthermore, it will allow you to see the world like you've never seen it before. May you enjoy sharing the light of Salvation with the world, and enjoy the view from up top!
KB
"You are the light on a hill. A city that cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14
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