Change a Child's Life

Last month we had a fall festival at church. Kids came and played games and were rewarded with candy. We tried to be as intentional as possible about setting it up in a way that we were able to interact with the kids and their parents. I think we succeeded in some small way with interacting with the families. I got to spend some good time playing and talking with the kids. I worked three games and it was so much fun. I loved meeting the families. It seemed the most popular game of the evening was the soccer ball kick. Basically we had a goal and the kids kicked the soccer ball into the goal. What I liked about it was the way the kids took their time to aim their kick. This gave us a great opportunity to talk. There were lots of names and faces and I know I will not remember them all, but I will definitely remember one family. There were 4 kids of varying ages and a mom. They were friendly as I said hello and introduced myself. One of the girls came dressed up in a home made costume. I could tell she felt uncomfortable with some of the other kids wearing their store bought costumes and the look in her eyes told me she wanted to fit in and have a nice costume like the other kids. I could tell from her hair style and the sparkly jacket she was dressed as Hannah Montana. I watched this family as they went to various games. Understand that most of the people working were of retirement age and had no idea who Hannah Montana was. However, they could recognize Spiderman, Batman, and Batgirl This made the girl feel even more inferior. When she came to my game, I decided to treat her like a star. I walked over to hand her the ball for the game and said. "Wow! Hannah Montana is right here beside me." The girl smiled because I recognized her costume. I began to ask her what her favorite song was, what she liked about performing, has she ever done a talent show at school, would she be willing to sing for us. Her mom got teary eyed as I asked "Hannah Montana" for her autograph. As the girl walked away with a big smile, her mother stayed behind and said "thank you." The family was so moved by the experience, they stayed after everyone else had left to help us clean. We loaded their arms with left over candy and food. I walked with the family to their car and thanked them for coming. I especially thanked "Hannah Montana" for coming to visit us. Their eyes and smiles were beaming with joy and happiness as they drove off. I said a silent prayer for the family and went to hug my own kids and tell them how much I loved them.

What I did was nothing significant. I did not solve world hunger. I did not explain the deepest mysteries of life. I made a family smile. I made a little girl feel good about herself. I made a mom cry tears of joy. It was so small, yet it made a difference to that child and to that family. I often find myself around people who want to make a difference but do not know how. They feel in order to make a difference, they have to do something really big and life changing that converts hundreds of people. I understand where they are coming from. I used to have those same thoughts. I thought if I made a difference in the world - it would have to be huge and gain national attention. But the fact of the matter is I made a difference to that little girl and her family. She went from feeling awkward and inferior at the beginning of the evening to confident and filled with laughter by the end of the evening. Her mom went from feeling sad for not being able to buy her daughter a costume to feeling so happy that her daughter's costume brought her so much attention. Making a difference in someone's life is not always some big act of kindness like giving them a car or house; sometimes it's making them smile and feel good about their life. I thank God that I met "Hannah Montana." She reminded me that life is about building others up when the world tries to tear them down.

Post-Election Thoughts

I am not a fan of politics. I never have been. However, I do keep up with politics. I feel it is important to vote. I love living in a country that I am free to express myself in. I am free to vote for any candidate I choose, and for that I am thankful. I am thankful to our country's founding fathers who laid a foundation that still stands today. I am thankful for the many men and women who give themselves in service to our country. I pray that those who gave their lives for the freedom of our nation will not be in vain. I love America. I weep for America. I pray for
America.

There are things that I hold as very important. Those things shape me and make me who I am as a person. Many of those things are labeled as politics. I must admit that I honestly struggled with this election. I struggled with who to vote for. I received lots of forwarded emails from friends and family that talked about why or why not to vote for a particular candidate. Most of the time when I researched the accusations, they came back false. I quickly dismissed those and began to wonder and pray about who I should vote for and not who others thought I should vote for.
Early on, I was really excited about Barack Obama. His work as a community leader who spent himself on behalf of the poor was something I really respected. He seemed like a man I could support. He understood challenges. He is a bi-racial man and if you work among bi-racial or African American people, you understand the challenges they face on a daily basis. I have spent most of my adult life working among poor minority families and I understand they have stuggles. I have a son who has black skin and I see the stares and hear the comments and my eyes are open to the struggles of minorities that are often sterotyped simply because their skin is darker than mine. I respected the fact that Barack Obama overcame those issues and was working to better people who were in poverty.

As for John McCain, he was not my first choice as a republican candidate. I prefered Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee. But I respected McCain. How can you not respect a man that was a P.O.W. and has done so much to serve our country? But I do not like the fact that he left his wife. Yet, in all honesty, we all fail and make mistakes - huge mistakes sometimes.

Let me say some of the things I believe and that ultimately swayed my vote. While like any other person I am concerned with the economy, I could not base my vote primarily on the economy. Something about that goes against my conscience - I never want to make a decision solely based on money. I am pro-life. I beleive that abortion is not the answer. I beleive that life starts at the moment of conception and therefore to have an abortion is take a life. I understand there are circumastances that people need to wrestle with and that I find myself wrestling with in regards to abortion. What if a person is raped? I still beleive we should not punish the child - and I understand that I have never been in that situation. What if the mother will probably die if the child is not aborted? I understand those situations are going to be tough, but ultimately I believe that abortion is taking a life.

I beleive that homosexuality is a sin. I do not know how a person can read the Bible and come to any other conclusion. Yet, I also believe that if a person is a homosexual (they are attracted to a person of the same gender) that it is not a cause for me to treat them harshly. While it is a sin, so is having sex outside of marriage - yet we seem to be more forgiving of that than homosexuality - Why the double standard?

I beleive that all people deserve to be loved and treated as being created in the image of God, yet I do not want to allow that to turn into accepting every kind of lifestyle. I love the homosexual person because God created them. Yet, I do not accept that lifestyle and do not believe God accepts it either. So I do not want to support a candidate that will compromise and make it seem perfectly acceptable for a homosexual lifestyle. Does that mean we mistreat them? No. Does that mean that we do not allow the homosexual person to be a part of our society? No. It means that we love the homosexual person with a true, authentic, genuine, Christ-like love while not compromising and being acceptable of the homosexual lifestyle.

So, you may have guessed that I voted for McCain. I will say it was not as easy as it has been in the past. I did not see a lot in McCain that would change the current situations we are facing as a nation. I loved the message of change that Obama kept talking about. Yet there was never any specific examples of the change. It seemed as though he really believed in the change, yet I question whether things will be any different. I think it is unfair that the very people who kept talking about Sarah Palin's lack of experience (I agree) overlooked Obama's lack of executive experience as well. Those who said Palin never answered a question directly (and, once again, I agree) overlooked the fact that it seemed Obama rarely answered a question directly either.

So, as a man who loves all people I want to congratulate Obama. I am so glad to see that we have come so far in regard to race. I love diversity. That is part of what I love about the United States. We have so many different cultures and different people groups, yet we are all people. God does not look at the outward man and neither should we. One of my American heroes is Martin Luther King, Jr. I wish he could have lived long enough to see a man of dark skin become president. I still believe in his dream. And every time I look into my son's eyes I believe it even more. So, I celebrate the fact that our country is learning to overcome racism. While I do not agree with Obama on the issues, I can rejoice in the victory that we are learning to get along.

Let me conclude (as this post is getting extremely long) that as a Christian, my hope and trust is in God. No political system will ever solve the greatest problems we face as human beings. No political system has ever cured world hunger. No political system can make everything right. But God can! When we seek afted God, we can make a difference. When we give God total control, then true change will take place. So I must be honest and ask myself - do I vote for helping the poor? That vote is not for a presidential candidate, it is for getting off my couch and going to the poor and serving them. Do I want to see a world where people are free from homesexuality? Then I must learn to stop holding picket signs and start loving the homsexual person with a deep, Christ-like love and perhaps they will see I actually live out what I claim to believe. Do we value the sanctity of marriage? We fight to make sure that marriage is not granted to homosexuals, but do we fight just as hard to protect families from divorce? Divorce rates are just as high among Christians as they are among non-Christians. Do we value life? We fight against abortion, but do we treat people with the love and respect they deserve as being created in the image of God? Do we spend ourselves on behalf of the poor? Are we reaching out to all people in the name of Jesus? Are we showing love? Do people look at us and say, "I want what they have," or do they look at us and say, "Those people claim to follow Jesus, but they are so full of hatred." Are we showing Jesus to the people around us? While I think it is important to vote on election day, I think it is so much more important to live out what we claim to beleive every day. Are you pro-life? then honor the life of each person and treat them in a Christ-like manner? Do you want to see poverty come to an end? Then spend your life on behalf of the poor and marginalized? Do you want to see all people have a voice? Then speak on behalf of those whose voices are not heard. Don't just say it - LIVE IT!!