Here's another song from Your Humble Blogger:
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Blessings Falling Like Rain
There is joy in my heart today!
When I was told I had Cancer, I knew I was in for a bit of a rocky ride on several fronts. So not only did I turn the course and success of my treatment over to God, but, knowing that I'd take a pretty significant hit in the pocketbook, I also put my finances in his hands. I've racked up quite a few medical bills of late, and I've missed a lot of work, so now that I've depleted my reserves I'm in a bit of a tight spot.
Well, wouldn't you know that our awesome God would show up right on time! During my extended absence following the surgery my wonderful friends at work began working on a few fund raising projects on my behalf, and last week when I returned I found that they'd designed a T-Shirt which reads: I Wear (Blue Awareness Ribbon) for Chip - Colon Cancer Awareness, took orders, and sold to date over 100 of them! I mean, WOW! I have at least 100 friends who were willing to kick in for a shirt (also blue wrist bands)! And they've now had so many other requests that they're getting up another order! I was, to put it mildly, overwhelmed.
This week the radiology center where I work hosted it's annual BBQ picnic as a "Thank You" to all of the local medical offices we serve, and there were a LOT of those t-shirts in the crowd.
So right now, not despite but because of the disease, I'm being blessed. Not only has God come through for me, but He's filled me to overflowing!
Here's what I've learned from all this:
- I asked long ago that He'd help me overcome my pride. Pride is a biggie for me in terms of spiritual hurdles. Well, I can't imagine a situation that would serve to convince a person that they're not really sovereign over his or her own life than a major illness. You might have been quite a competent captain of your ship, amassed wealth, and climbed the ladder of success, sat in an exalted position, but nobody is more than one doctors visit away from having all that Earthy security come crashing down. So, this illness has helped me down the road towards humility.
- In the same way it's brought me to a deeper understanding of HOW MUCH I NEED HIM. Yes, I'm reminded daily of my helplessness. And in that helplessness I call out to Him. Draw closer to Him. Depend on Him. And this has the happy effect of bring me into a much more intimate relationship with Him. No down side there!
- My humility is also aided by the fact that for the first time in my life it's me that needs assistance. I'll admit that there's a sense of pride that wants me to refuse the gifts of my friends because it puts me on the other side of the circumstance. Of course, I'd never have been so ungracious as to do anything other than thankfully accept their gift, but that thought was there. As my wise brother-in-law Randy pointed out to me, if I refuse to accept someone's gift then I deny them their blessing. Well, yeah! And I believe that God is using this to help me remember that I'm just another human and not so far above anyone that I can't find myself in need.
- I've found out just how many friends I have! I have been the blessed recipient of a tidal wave of love recently. Everyday I'm bowled over by this outpouring of love and support, and I guess I never realized how many people I touch in the course of my daily job. So far about 110 t-shirts were sold, and once others saw them, they expressed a desire to get one too. So my wonderful friends Panda, Denise, and Virgen are currently putting together another order. It's just so humbling and heart-warming to bask in this!
So, I these days I feel much like George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life at the point where he comes home to find the entire town rallying to his aid and realizes he's the richest man in town - in friends.
It may sound like pure insanity to a non-believer, but I have to say that Cancer, as ugly as it is, has also brought me more blessings into my life than pain. I praise my God for this!
When I was told I had Cancer, I knew I was in for a bit of a rocky ride on several fronts. So not only did I turn the course and success of my treatment over to God, but, knowing that I'd take a pretty significant hit in the pocketbook, I also put my finances in his hands. I've racked up quite a few medical bills of late, and I've missed a lot of work, so now that I've depleted my reserves I'm in a bit of a tight spot.
Well, wouldn't you know that our awesome God would show up right on time! During my extended absence following the surgery my wonderful friends at work began working on a few fund raising projects on my behalf, and last week when I returned I found that they'd designed a T-Shirt which reads: I Wear (Blue Awareness Ribbon) for Chip - Colon Cancer Awareness, took orders, and sold to date over 100 of them! I mean, WOW! I have at least 100 friends who were willing to kick in for a shirt (also blue wrist bands)! And they've now had so many other requests that they're getting up another order! I was, to put it mildly, overwhelmed.
 |
| Some of my wonderful work pals sporting Chip shirts |
This week the radiology center where I work hosted it's annual BBQ picnic as a "Thank You" to all of the local medical offices we serve, and there were a LOT of those t-shirts in the crowd.
So right now, not despite but because of the disease, I'm being blessed. Not only has God come through for me, but He's filled me to overflowing!
Here's what I've learned from all this:
- I asked long ago that He'd help me overcome my pride. Pride is a biggie for me in terms of spiritual hurdles. Well, I can't imagine a situation that would serve to convince a person that they're not really sovereign over his or her own life than a major illness. You might have been quite a competent captain of your ship, amassed wealth, and climbed the ladder of success, sat in an exalted position, but nobody is more than one doctors visit away from having all that Earthy security come crashing down. So, this illness has helped me down the road towards humility.
 |
| My Daughter in Law Christie |
- My humility is also aided by the fact that for the first time in my life it's me that needs assistance. I'll admit that there's a sense of pride that wants me to refuse the gifts of my friends because it puts me on the other side of the circumstance. Of course, I'd never have been so ungracious as to do anything other than thankfully accept their gift, but that thought was there. As my wise brother-in-law Randy pointed out to me, if I refuse to accept someone's gift then I deny them their blessing. Well, yeah! And I believe that God is using this to help me remember that I'm just another human and not so far above anyone that I can't find myself in need.
- I've found out just how many friends I have! I have been the blessed recipient of a tidal wave of love recently. Everyday I'm bowled over by this outpouring of love and support, and I guess I never realized how many people I touch in the course of my daily job. So far about 110 t-shirts were sold, and once others saw them, they expressed a desire to get one too. So my wonderful friends Panda, Denise, and Virgen are currently putting together another order. It's just so humbling and heart-warming to bask in this!
So, I these days I feel much like George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life at the point where he comes home to find the entire town rallying to his aid and realizes he's the richest man in town - in friends.
It may sound like pure insanity to a non-believer, but I have to say that Cancer, as ugly as it is, has also brought me more blessings into my life than pain. I praise my God for this!
Saturday, May 5, 2012
Eli
I worked as a table volunteer at a Compassion event at the Chattanooga Choo Choo convention center in last week. There was some mix-up, and the event coordinator who was supposed to be there was in some other part of the country. So the Compassion staff member who drew the short straw and had to drive in from Nashville with about 20 minutes notice was a guy named Eli. When he finally got there he was full of good humor - I mean he never stopped with the jokes for a second. Very nice guy who went on and on about how essential volunteers are to Compassion and how great it was for him to find all the displays in place and the table set up. A very enjoyable guy to be around. I liked him instantly.
At some point he casually mentioned that he'd been a Christian recording artist back in the late 90s. So that night I looked him up on the Internets and was pretty blown away. I really like his music. And I mean really...not just because I liked the man first. So, here's a couple of YouTube clips.
(I also met a Ugandan woman named Olive who had been a sponsored child. What a treat that was, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to concentrate very intensely in order not to cry when she was giving her testimony before the audience that night. You know, southern male pride and all that :)
At some point he casually mentioned that he'd been a Christian recording artist back in the late 90s. So that night I looked him up on the Internets and was pretty blown away. I really like his music. And I mean really...not just because I liked the man first. So, here's a couple of YouTube clips.
(I also met a Ugandan woman named Olive who had been a sponsored child. What a treat that was, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to concentrate very intensely in order not to cry when she was giving her testimony before the audience that night. You know, southern male pride and all that :)
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
"Top Down" or "Bottom Up"?
The more I learn about Compassion International's mission and philosophies the more I'm convinced that I've made the right move partnering with them. And one thing I heard on a training video that really stuck me was this statement: "Compassion believes that rarely do changed circumstances changes hearts, but changed hearts nearly always change circumstances." Eureka, thought I!
That one sentence sums up the fundamental difference between the "top down" and "bottom up" efforts to effect human change. Beginning in the 1960s we set out to wage a "war on poverty" here in the United States. Lyndon Johnson set in motion a whole bundle of programs and agencies designed to eradicate both urban and rural poverty right here in our own backyard. Welfare, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the food stamp program, W.I.C., and many other "ABC" departments were created and went right to work on "top down" projects in nearly every city in the country. It was thought that if the poor were relieved of the constant pressure of their hand to mouth conditions that they would then be at liberty move forward and upward toward prosperity. A laudable goal, to be sure!
But sadly forty plus years and untold trillions of dollars in we can see that this approach didn't work. Not only was what we call poverty in this country not eradicated, but it seems to have only grown in depth and breadth - exponentially. There are gains that have been realized. For example, without a doubt programs that feed those in need have created a circumstance where rarely is any child in need in the U.S. without potential resources. This is good. And true homelessness, though given a great deal of exposure in the press, is a rarity. Also good! But for every positive in this situation the negatives are legion.
For me the most glaring example of the failure of "top down" programs was the Cabrini Green housing development in Chicago. Hailed as a triumph before even the first spade of earth was turned, Cabrini Green was to have been a symbol of hope for all of Chicago's poor. Decent housing was to become a reality for thousands, so blocks of sub-standard, slum housing were razed and soon the towers soared above the neighborhood.
But in short order the cracks in the "top down" logic began to show. Vandalism took a quick toll on the aesthetic value of the property. And the criminal element never so much as momentarily hesitated to venture into the supposedly enlightened confines of the project. And as the years wore on the problems only multiplied, hardened, and metastasized.
End the end this monument to America's commitment to the war on poverty had become a symbol of degradation, urban crime, municipal neglect, rot, and failure. Cabrini had become the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago, if not the country. It had become uninhabitable. The last of the buildings was torn down in 2011. Not a stone remains of the dream of Cabrini Green.*
"Rarely do changed circumstances change hearts,"
Now let's look at a "bottom up" approach. It's Compassion's view that only by truly changing hearts can the cycle of poverty be broken. Understand that along with the physical poverty of hunger, need for clothing, shelter, medical care, etc lies a deeper form of poverty - the poverty of the heart.
I'm talking about the internalized hopelessness that can overcome a child raised in these circumstances. The loss of any hope (and perhaps even knowledge) that there could be anything better for that child beyond the want, death, and violence into which they were born. And this is tragic. It's the loss of a person. Hope, you see, is the lifeblood of the soul.
But one thing all parents understand is that there is time in a child's life when they are pure and innocent and even joyful almost irregardless of what's going on around them. And if a child can be reached during that critical window of opportunity, her destiny can be changed. A hope can be planted that won't be extinguished.
Which is where Compassion comes in. For the past 60 years Compassion has been in the mission field working diligently to reach those precious hearts and change the story for millions of children - one willing sponsor/one child at a time. In Jesus' name. They now operate in twenty-six countries world wide by partnering with local churches in the areas served. In fact, they only work with the church because Compassion believes that the church is the only institution set forth by God to complete his work on Earth. So rather than compete with them, they partner with and strengthen them.
And it's within the walls of these church run school projects that Compassion children can find hope. A sponsored child will receive an education, nourishing meals (and what a load off of the shoulders of a parent struggling to feed several children on $1 a day that must be!), medical care, clothing and school supplies. And most importantly of all, they will learn about our Savior. As Christians we understand that the child who grows up without knowledge of Jesus is in possession of the most impoverished heart of all.
If a child shows talent and potential they may advance to the university via Compassion's Leadership Development Program. And if a child needs life-saving heart surgery there's a fund for that. Today Compassion even begins it's relationship with children while they're still in the womb through it's Child Survival Program. And by answering Christ's call to care for the "least of these" Compassion's "bottom up" approach gets results.
Imagine that a charities resources were used to build a school building. Yes, it would be a positive good. But it's only a building after all, and in time it will begin to crumble. Furthermore, if the local community failed to feel any sense of "ownership" towards it it may very well become a target of vandals and thieves. Under the best of circumstances the building would only have a useful life span of a few decades.
Now imagine that the same resources were "child based", as are Compassion's, and spent directly for the benefit of the children in need. No new building is erected (although it might be) because the existing local church runs the school. The child will find himself fed, clothed, educated, and loved. Loved by a Christian sponsor in some far away land. He understands Christ's love deeply as a direct recipient of the outpouring of that love, and, hopefully, he will come to accept him as his savior. And he begins to see a world beyond his own. He receives encouragement and is given the tools to raise himself up. In the end you'll most likely end up with a confident, educated, empowered, Christian adult.
Further imagine that he marries a Christian woman and they start a family. Now multiply that couple several times according to the number of sponsored children in that community - can you see where this is going? You now have Christian families, prospering ,hopefully, where before only hopelessness lived. Men and women who now have the tools to make a decent living, the health the exploit that opportunity, and a strong spiritual and moral backbone.
Which of these two scenarios would you imagine to have the most long lasting impact on an impoverished village?
"...but changed hearts almost always change circumstances."
That one sentence sums up the fundamental difference between the "top down" and "bottom up" efforts to effect human change. Beginning in the 1960s we set out to wage a "war on poverty" here in the United States. Lyndon Johnson set in motion a whole bundle of programs and agencies designed to eradicate both urban and rural poverty right here in our own backyard. Welfare, The Department of Housing and Urban Development, the food stamp program, W.I.C., and many other "ABC" departments were created and went right to work on "top down" projects in nearly every city in the country. It was thought that if the poor were relieved of the constant pressure of their hand to mouth conditions that they would then be at liberty move forward and upward toward prosperity. A laudable goal, to be sure!
But sadly forty plus years and untold trillions of dollars in we can see that this approach didn't work. Not only was what we call poverty in this country not eradicated, but it seems to have only grown in depth and breadth - exponentially. There are gains that have been realized. For example, without a doubt programs that feed those in need have created a circumstance where rarely is any child in need in the U.S. without potential resources. This is good. And true homelessness, though given a great deal of exposure in the press, is a rarity. Also good! But for every positive in this situation the negatives are legion.
For me the most glaring example of the failure of "top down" programs was the Cabrini Green housing development in Chicago. Hailed as a triumph before even the first spade of earth was turned, Cabrini Green was to have been a symbol of hope for all of Chicago's poor. Decent housing was to become a reality for thousands, so blocks of sub-standard, slum housing were razed and soon the towers soared above the neighborhood.
But in short order the cracks in the "top down" logic began to show. Vandalism took a quick toll on the aesthetic value of the property. And the criminal element never so much as momentarily hesitated to venture into the supposedly enlightened confines of the project. And as the years wore on the problems only multiplied, hardened, and metastasized.
End the end this monument to America's commitment to the war on poverty had become a symbol of degradation, urban crime, municipal neglect, rot, and failure. Cabrini had become the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago, if not the country. It had become uninhabitable. The last of the buildings was torn down in 2011. Not a stone remains of the dream of Cabrini Green.*
"Rarely do changed circumstances change hearts,"
Now let's look at a "bottom up" approach. It's Compassion's view that only by truly changing hearts can the cycle of poverty be broken. Understand that along with the physical poverty of hunger, need for clothing, shelter, medical care, etc lies a deeper form of poverty - the poverty of the heart.
I'm talking about the internalized hopelessness that can overcome a child raised in these circumstances. The loss of any hope (and perhaps even knowledge) that there could be anything better for that child beyond the want, death, and violence into which they were born. And this is tragic. It's the loss of a person. Hope, you see, is the lifeblood of the soul.
But one thing all parents understand is that there is time in a child's life when they are pure and innocent and even joyful almost irregardless of what's going on around them. And if a child can be reached during that critical window of opportunity, her destiny can be changed. A hope can be planted that won't be extinguished.
Which is where Compassion comes in. For the past 60 years Compassion has been in the mission field working diligently to reach those precious hearts and change the story for millions of children - one willing sponsor/one child at a time. In Jesus' name. They now operate in twenty-six countries world wide by partnering with local churches in the areas served. In fact, they only work with the church because Compassion believes that the church is the only institution set forth by God to complete his work on Earth. So rather than compete with them, they partner with and strengthen them.
And it's within the walls of these church run school projects that Compassion children can find hope. A sponsored child will receive an education, nourishing meals (and what a load off of the shoulders of a parent struggling to feed several children on $1 a day that must be!), medical care, clothing and school supplies. And most importantly of all, they will learn about our Savior. As Christians we understand that the child who grows up without knowledge of Jesus is in possession of the most impoverished heart of all.
If a child shows talent and potential they may advance to the university via Compassion's Leadership Development Program. And if a child needs life-saving heart surgery there's a fund for that. Today Compassion even begins it's relationship with children while they're still in the womb through it's Child Survival Program. And by answering Christ's call to care for the "least of these" Compassion's "bottom up" approach gets results.
Imagine that a charities resources were used to build a school building. Yes, it would be a positive good. But it's only a building after all, and in time it will begin to crumble. Furthermore, if the local community failed to feel any sense of "ownership" towards it it may very well become a target of vandals and thieves. Under the best of circumstances the building would only have a useful life span of a few decades.
Now imagine that the same resources were "child based", as are Compassion's, and spent directly for the benefit of the children in need. No new building is erected (although it might be) because the existing local church runs the school. The child will find himself fed, clothed, educated, and loved. Loved by a Christian sponsor in some far away land. He understands Christ's love deeply as a direct recipient of the outpouring of that love, and, hopefully, he will come to accept him as his savior. And he begins to see a world beyond his own. He receives encouragement and is given the tools to raise himself up. In the end you'll most likely end up with a confident, educated, empowered, Christian adult.
Further imagine that he marries a Christian woman and they start a family. Now multiply that couple several times according to the number of sponsored children in that community - can you see where this is going? You now have Christian families, prospering ,hopefully, where before only hopelessness lived. Men and women who now have the tools to make a decent living, the health the exploit that opportunity, and a strong spiritual and moral backbone.
Which of these two scenarios would you imagine to have the most long lasting impact on an impoverished village?
"...but changed hearts almost always change circumstances."
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