Let It Go

 As I was driving into work this morning, I happened to think of what it might be like to have my mom and dad in the pickup with me, shadowing me as I did my daily routine of work today.  My parents were born in the 19-teens and were young adults during the Great Depression.  They married at the end of the 1930’s decade and both passed away in the 1980’s.  They lived in small towns pretty much all their lives and raised their family in a small town in Kansas.

They both worked hard all their working lives, and often, I think, were just a hop and skip away from not having enough to feed their growing family…although we never knew that until later on in life when we siblings reminisced about some things that happened from time to time while we were growing up.

They also were trusting.  They left their keys in their vehicles.  They didn’t lock the house up when they went somewhere.  They left garage doors open, things out in the yard, and generally weren’t that cognizant of nefarious things that might happen.  And pretty much nothing DID happen.

I first have to wonder what they would think of the home we live in.  Four bedrooms, three baths, and more room in just the main floor than the entire house where six of us were raised.  The lower level of our house adds another amount of square footage that exceeds the entire house where we lived as kids.  Our home backs up to a park…a park with deep woods, a creek, and paths for people, bicycles, and horses.  This kind of thing would have been unthinkable in their day except for the most financially favored of the day, and would have been grossly extravagant spending in their opinion.

As I drove into town to work, I wondered what they would have thought of round-abouts…you know, those things at intersections which are supposed to result in better traffic flow.  I wondered how Dad would have navigated the traffic had he been driving.  I thought about all the businesses I passed on my way to work and wondered what they would have thought about all of the shops, small businesses, apartment complexes, and big box stores.

I don’t know what they would have thought about the homeless I saw on my way in to work.  As products of the Great Depression, they were people who raised their own food, sewed their own clothes, and built (actually, remodeled and expanded) their own house, I wonder if they could even comprehend the idea of someone not being able to feed, clothe, and house himself.

The Paxton’s Blessing Box on the outside of our building…what would they have thought about our putting food in the box for anyone to take?  How would they react if they sat in on one of my interviews with someone who couldn’t pay their electric or water bill and needed help?  What would they say about the fact that we have security check out church property each night multiple times during the night, and sometimes have to tell a person loitering on the property to leave?  How would they react to our building being locked down even when we are here and inside?  And what would they say knowing the government is interested in how we maintain our fire sprinkler system, our emergency lighting, and our chair lift that is on our basement stairs at the church?

You see that I’ve not mentioned cellular communications, the Internet, or any of that.  I’ve stayed with some of the more, shall we say, basic things in the modern world.  The “gee-whiz” stuff such as flat screen television and world wide instant communication, artificial intelligence, video streaming, 300 channel cable television, self-driving cars, and the like would be as foreign to them as galactic space travel might be to us.

But, my parents aren’t here…they’re not with me today as I go about my daily tasks at the building.  And it’s probably just as well that they aren’t.  They would be hard-pressed to fit in and understand the changes that have taken place.  It was beginning to be like that back in the 1980’s as they went into their final years.  And it would be all the more difficult now to have any kind of understanding of what society is like in the modern day.

And, you know, it will be the same for us.  We too, if suddenly transported into society forty or fifty years down the road, would have a difficult time comprehending, understanding, and getting along.  We might well feel just as lost as my parents might should they suddenly experience today’s society.

Change is constant.  While we’re part of it, it’s easier to cope with it and often embrace it.  When we’ve been away from it for awhile, it’s more difficult to catch up, and sometimes we never get caught up.  And as we age, it often becomes less important to us to try to keep up.  I’m finding myself in a sort of a middle ground with this.  In some ways, I like to keep current, but in other ways, I’m satisfied to just let it go.  I’m guessing it’s much the same with you if you are approaching or are past about 70 years old.  That’s just the way life often is.

Thanks for listening this week.  Blessings.

 

Looking Upstream

 Good morning!

We in the Wichita area are hearing a lot about the MAC…the multi-agency center that is being constructed to help address what many call the homeless situation.  The center, which now has the name “Second Light,” is a place where not only is shelter offered for men and women, but there also are many agencies which have a presence in that same place where the unhoused can find “one stop” services, help, and support.  They don’t have to go from this place to that…from this building on the East side of town to that building on the West side…the essential services and support are right there in one physical place.

Over 120 non-profits and agencies are interested in having a presence in the center.  Health care, mental health, veterans’ services, faith-based services, housing, assistance with getting identification, and other services will be offered to those who choose to avail themselves of those services.

The shelter isn’t just for overnight stays.  It’s open 24-7 so those who shelter there don’t have to continually move around or find safe places to store their personal effects.  Shelter operators anticipate stays of 90 to 120 days will be needed in many cases in order to provide the kind of help through the partner agencies that the unhoused will be needing.

All of this is well and good…and necessary.  However, there is also a concerted effort to “go upstream,” as it were…to look beyond the unhoused in order to determine the causes of homelessness and address those concerns BEFORE someone drops into the culture of the unhoused.

One of the things I do at RiverWalk is the benevolence.  Over the past ten or so years I’ve been doing this, I have been amazed at the number of people who are barely hanging on…barely meeting their need for housing…shelter…food…transportation…job.  Many of these people are literally…and I do mean literally…one tank of gasoline from homelessness…one unpaid utility bill away from having to live in their car or on the street…one filled prescription medication away from not being able to maintain a job or home…one flat tire away from having no transportation which will take them to that job.

Think about it.  If one’s gas tank is empty and their job is ten miles away from their house, they may not  be able to get to work.  And many who employ general laborers, which is what many of these folks are, don’t take kindly to no-shows, even if for legitimate reasons.

If their electricity is turned off for non-payment, they may be evicted.  And with an eviction on their record, it will be difficult if not impossible to find other housing.  IF they happen to be in a Section 8 or government subsidized home or apartment, having one’s utility services cut off for non-payment is an automatic eviction, with a lifetime ban on ever using Section 8 again.

We at RiverWalk don’t have a large benevolence budget.  So we have to be careful in how we use it.  Of course, we help our members with whatever they need.  But for non-members…those who show up at the door or make a phone call, we are limited in what we can do.  We have chosen to do what we can to help those who are on the brink of being unhoused stay in their homes.

Depending on the situation, we can sometimes pump a tank of gas into a vehicle that is used for work, school, or medical appointments.  And we can also sometimes help with a utility bill to keep the lights, gas, or water turned on…again, depending on the situation.

These helps aren’t automatic.  The one seeking help must come to the office and submit to an interview.  We limit how often one can ask for help.  We limit the amount of help.  And we try to guide them to other resources that may be available.

We also operate a food pantry that can help with food and sometimes hygiene items or things like laundry detergent, toothpaste, etc.  We will offer them the information on that ministry as well.

We keep track of the help we provide.  We have an extensive record that goes back several years.  Some people have asked for help many times.  Others just once or twice.  We do our best to treat each person with human dignity…to be a neighbor (according to the teachings of Jesus Christ) to the one asking for help…and to listen to their story.  Listening…just listening…is a vital part of what we do.

It may surprise you to know how many times someone has thanked me with obvious gratitude for just listening to them and conversing with them, even when I’ve told them we cannot help them.  It certainly has surprised me over the years.

I don’t know how many people we have been able to keep off of the street over the last ten or so years because we gave them a tank of gasoline or paid a utility bill.  I suspect the number is well into the hundreds.

As my friend Jennifer White has said, “I may not be able to do everything, but I can do something.”  May God bless the efforts of a multitude of people who are working daily to redeem the creation…to make their corner of the world a better place for all…and bring about positive change in our society.

Blessings,

God in the Ordinary

 Good afternoon.

I haven’t done one of these thoughts for a week or two…at least on Thursdays.  Last week we were at a reunion in Illinois, and this week I spent Thursday catching up on the work I missed while in Illinois.  But there’s always Friday, I guess.

I don’t really have a lot to say even though we spent several days in Illinois or driving to or from that state.  We don’t hurry anymore when we go some place.  We stayed in Des Moines both going and coming back and made the trip a two-day affair each way.  Neither of us can weather those twelve hour road trips anymore with any kind of comfort, so we try to split it up if possible.

There were over 40 at the annual Plank reunion over the Independence Day weekend.  Some have “reunioned” ever since the tradition began some forty or so years ago.  Others come when they can, and we always, it seems, have a newcomer or two due to marriage, birth, adoption, or just a friend.  We welcome all who have good connections with the family and have a good time during the three days we are together.

We generally avoid politics and religion, which, I think, helps everything hold together.  We run the gamut in the family on both of those topics.  And we usually have enough to talk about just catching up on things that those topics rarely come up with any kind of serious nature.  Most all of us respect the views of the others and try not to antagonize or start some kind of conflict.  The six of us siblings made the promise long ago that we would stay together as a family following the deaths of our parents.  And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that.

It’s the middle of the summer, and that means the heat and often the humidity are higher than a cat’s back when she’s in fighting mood.  We have had a decent amount of rainfall over the past month or so, and things continue to grow and look pretty good outside.  I’m thinking, though, that there will come some kind of hot dry spell…there usually is…before it’s all over and the autumn cool breezes come our way.

I’m not sitting out on the back patio nearly as much as I have been…due to the heat and humidity…and also the mosquitos.  I usually like to do that and listen to the varieties of birds in the area; however, there aren’t as many during the summer…or at least they don’t’ make themselves known with their singing.

I usually can hear a cardinal, a Carolina wren or two, a dove, and sometimes robins and the occasional woodpecker gnawing away on a dead branch somewhere close by.  The spring influx of migratory birds as well as the corresponding fall influx just doesn’t happen over the summer months as birds have found their places, built nests, are raising their young, and carrying on with life and living.

And we are quite often like that.  Sometimes we can take time off and “sing” so to speak by going on vacation, attending a reunion, visiting relatives, or taking on some other special event or thing.  But most of our time is spent doing the usual…the routine…the ordinary events and things in life.  We make our homes livable.  We raise our kids (or help with the grand kids).  We wash clothes, do the laundry, pay the bills, and a hundred other “ordinary” things in life every day.

Most of life consists of the ordinary…the routine.  James Carroll, in a recent book he wrote called “Christ Actually…The Son of God for the Secular Age”, says “The presence of God lies in what is ordinary.”

Skylar Spradlin, writing in an article called “The Power of Ordinary Moments,” says this:  “We should not ignore or neglect the small, ordinary, and simple moments of life.  God doesn’t necessarily flaunt Himself in the big, grand events of the day, but He is working, and dare we say hiding, in the mundane and ordinary aspects of our lives.”

It can be difficult at best to see how God is at work when we are folding laundry, cleaning up a mess on the bathroom floor, or driving to the store in heavy traffic.  But maybe that’s because we aren’t looking for Him there.  Maybe we’re looking for him to swoop down in some kind of majesty and power, and fix our problems with something akin to magic.  But life doesn’t go that way.  It often is the ordinary slogging through our chores and, if you make one, our “to do” list that we encounter God.

Just as the birds in their summer busy season already know, we may not be able to see Him in the ordinary even if we try our best.  But He indeed is there and is loving on you even as you burn the toast or break a glass on the floor.

There is much truth in the line from that old children’s song “He Loves Me Too.”  “God sees the little sparrow fall; it meets his tender view.  If God so loved the little birds, I know he loves me too.”

Blessings,