Yesterday I was leaving a men’s lunch Bible Study that I started with one of my ‘geek’ friends 14 years ago. (We have taken over Coco’s back section at lunch on Tuesdays for years now.) I had an enlightening conversation with a good friend. As I am asking him how he is doing he shares the real truth that the hunger games are not games at all. You see my friend decided four years ago to leave his high paying engineering job to be a relator and have more opportunity to be with his family, be more involved with being gospel driven and be less stressed out. The reality for being a relator today is that it is either feast or famine.
We were in a discussion with a group of engineers at the study that was focused on the Prophet Isaiah but at times would vacillate into politics or social issues. We were talking about the ills of our present government’s dilemma with health care. The circumstances for these guys who are very well off is that they don’t have to worry about health care because their company provides it or if it didn’t they had the means to pay for it out of their six figure salaries. Whereas, most of the neighbors around me, live hand to mouth and don’t know where tomorrow’s dinner will come. They are living either on state aid or making$15 an hour or less and are amazingly able to provide for a family of 5 or more. Typically at the end of the month there isn’t enough money for food never the less health care coverage.
Back to my friend, who now is sharing the blessing of living by faith, when it comes to his salary and being able to provide for his family. I had just watched the Hunger Games at the local cinema. It portrayed a surrealistic image of people living hand to mouth while a select few lived ‘high on the hog’. As my friend shared his struggle I honestly told him that the discussion about health care bothered me because most who have had resources in their lives can’t relate to someone who has never had the means to pay for health insurance that could be more than their monthly income.
As I looked into the eyes of my tall friend it was clear that he got it when it came to having next to nothing in his bank account. He understands the fear of not having anything to put on the table for dinner or snacks after school. Yes, poverty and hunger do exist in our community. I will be the first to admit that this type of hunger or poverty is not close to the scale that is found in third world countries but never the less it is real and people do go hungry and end up on the street.
I have been blessed to have resources that provide for the needs and wants of my wife, my family and myself. I am on a journey that God is convicting me, kicking my behind, to live on less, be more strategic in how I use the resources that I have been given and help others be more pro-active and not reactive to their circumstances. I am not a proponent that being rich is a sin nor being poor is more spiritual. I believe it is more an issue of understanding our calling to share our resources with others, i.e. our time, talents and treasures. The challenge is that it isn’t easy for someone who has means to understand what it would be like to have only $20 to your name and just discover that you have been laid off.
I also reacted to a good friend, who has struggled the last couple of years with having steady employment, who decided to buy an iPhone. Yeah, I have an iPhone and it is my little office away from the office but I have the means to pay for it. I use to always buy everything new but now have become a wise shopper who uses Craigslist and other online tools to find bargains that help me be more frugal. It isn’t easy to watch someone struggle with putting food on the table when they have foolishly wasted their money on some luxury or want and it is also tough to watch someone successful use their means to go overboard.
One of the paths I am pursuing is to connect the dots by having my variety of friends partner together to help promote responsibility and a passion for learning and achieving. A couple of my engineer friends are going to help birth a relationship between their company and one of my partner charter schools to give opportunities for teens to see the potential in getting into the high tech world. I have a high tech background and understand too clearly how difficult it is for my teens to do well in math and science without some help and mentoring. So all of a sudden I have an opportunity to connect my friends and see my teens and their friends be given an introduction into real life and what it takes to get a good job. Yes, it involves hard work in school and a sacrifice to be different.
I know that real life stories that made the movie, “Stand and Deliver”, are classic examples that ultimately everyone given the opportunity can strive for being more academically driven. The challenge when this movie was done and today hasn’t changed a lot when it comes to the perception of who fits in what type of job market. My desire is to get my youth who have little sense of vision to open their eyes and see that the world is nothing to fear but to attack with passion and do something that can make a difference in their worlds.
I know that there isn’t any easy solution to societal ills that cause poverty and hunger. My hope is to help those in my circle of friends realize that they can make a difference in someone’s life that will bring wholeness where there has been brokenness. Also, when someone has grown up without a dad or grandpa it isn’t easy to see much potential when it comes to their future forget talking about career choices. Yes, as my son the philosopher would say, “Life is a roller coaster that we have to choose to ride!”
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