Law of the Garbage Truck.

A leaflet arrived in our letterbox from the local real estate agent. His name is Hamish McDonald and the young thirty-ish year old man used to be in a school boy cricket team I coached. I loved this story that he put in his leaflet.... 

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and stated yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean he was really friendly. So I asked, "Why did you do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the hospital!" This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call, "The Law of of Garbage Truck."  He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning with regrets.

Sometimes I try to live up to such ideals. I thought it was a story worth sharing.

People love people

We hear about all the bad news regularly but a number of experiences have encouraged me over the last week.

I saw a film called "Kicking It". It was about the homeless world cup. A movement has evolved where people gather together homeless people who are keen on soccer. They form teams and train and a selected team represents their country at a world cup event. (We are hoping to start a group in Dunedin) This film followed the experiences of various individuals from a number of countries as the prepared for and played the world cup. It was great to see what soccer did for these guys who had so little hope in their lives. What really impressed me was the love shown by the various coaches. They poured their hearts out to help their players. The Spanish team were mostly outclassed. They were made up of older street guys. But they won one game... their coach was so thrilled for them. As the team celebrated he sidled off away from the cameras crying tears of joy for these guys. It warms your heart to see such love for people.

I was at a fire station the other day and they were called to a nasty accident, and of course like a little boy, I went along for the ride. I watched as "my" firefighters and ambulance officers worked so well to extract a badly injured guy out of the mashed up vehicle. I was so impressed! They were totally focused and so totally caring. It was not just another job, they cared for the people at the scene, the people from both cars, trying their best to support and heal in a bad situation. They were simply loving... and again I was moved nearly to tears. (You don't cry around fire fighters!)

I watched as the father of the family in the other car arrived to check out his children and their mother. There was such love evident in the family that I could not help but be moved.

I stood near to the policeman who was ringing the parents of the injured young man and again he was so tactful, caring and gentle as he broke difficult news and guided them in their decisions.

There are rotten people, murderers, violent people and greedy thieves. But I think it is still true that most people are, when push comes to shove, loving, caring and supportive..... Alleluia!

Preaching for myself....

Banjo Paterson in his poem "The man from Iron Bark" has a line that I am often reminded of. It is describing some youths that sat along the wall in the barbershop. It says, "Their heads were flat, their eyes were dull, they had no brains at all." I am evil but sometimes this line comes to mind as I look out on my congregation on Sunday morning. It is of course an incorrect description but I sometimes get the feel that they front up every Sunday, with no expectation of wanting to learn or grow. They will, because it is their habit, sit through another church service and hope it is entertaining. I on the other hand, spend hours trying to mould a service into something interesting, something that will speak to this mob at their level, with the expectation that it will motivate them toward personal growth, action and christian discipleship. I get little sleep Saturday nights, I stew and scribble and read and read some more. Sunday morning is as tiring as running a half marathon and I am often disappointed in the music we can have. But at the end of it all I wonder if it is at all worth it? What does it achieve? I get the feeling again that I am out of step with everyone else.

• They look on faith as a comfort, I see it as disturbing and a springboard to action.
• Their expectation of Sunday morning is like a drink station, a resting place as they cope with life, I see it as a launching pad so that we can rocket into life.
• They see the church as the place they meet God, I see God at work in the world and it's there that we catch up with him and find partnership.

I had the privilege recently of catching up with a ministry colleague who I "click" with. We were together for barely an hour, yet it was sooo good. I expressed my Sunday morning hassles. I enjoy chaplaincy, the community work that the church allows me to do and many people stuff connections etc. but the religious stuff on Sunday morning I can do without. I hate it, it seems a waste of time and emotional energy. A side issue to the real "Jesus stuff". "What are we doing on Sunday morning?" I said. "What difference does it make?" She empathised and we joked about our nasty feelings and the fact that we are always compromising so as not to offend "the saints". But then she said something really helpful. She said, "I see Sunday mornings as being for myself. I use it as the time I remind myself of what I am about and what is important to me. If others get anything from it is incidental. I have found that to be the best way to cope with the frustrations of it." I found that helpful. I still need to try to communicate and mould stuff for these people, but it is helpful to see that it is as much me preaching to myself, holding up for myself the ideals I aspire to, whether or not others want to listen and/or latch on.

It's not unlike blogging. :-)

Do chooks talk?

This afternoon I went to the hen house to put more mash in their feeder.  I throw a few handfuls of wheat into the yard which has them all out of the hen house, out from under my feet. (We only have 5 hens) I then went into the hen house with a bag of mash and began tipping it into their virtually empty feeder. One hen came in, nosed up to the feeder and dipped into the mash. She turned and went out to the yard, clucking noisily.  She returned with all of the others in tow and they all came up to the feeder to check it out!

It was just as if upon discovering that there was new mash in the feeder, she rushed out and said, "Hey girls he has just put new mash in, come and get it!". ... you would swear that she communicated something?  Not scientific but interesting.

Why build another house?

Saturday was the first real working day of a new Habitat for Humanity house in Dunedin. It will be the thirteenth house that I have been involved in building. On each of them I have put in hundreds of hours. In Habitat for Humanity we volunteers help a family build a house and then the family pays for the house on an interest-free loan. It is a great step up for a family who would otherwise not be able to get into home ownership. I was a part of starting a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Dunedin in 1995. Habitat has changed over the years with the affiliates becoming less autonomous and the deal for home owners being less generous than it once was. I do not agree with the changes but still feel it helps families. Why do I do it?

• As I have mentioned in previous posts, one of my deeply held values is that we all belong together. As part of the human family we are connected to one another. We are "brothers and sisters". Most of us would willingly assist our natural siblings whenever they call on us for help in the journey of life. By helping to build at a Habitat for Humanity house I am expressing my solidarity with others. I am giving practical expression to this deep value.

• We all long to live in healthy communities. We long for our communities to be places of support, trust and togetherness. The atmosphere of any community is set by the people who live in it. If everybody is out for what they can get, then the community "feel" is not there.  Isolation, mistrust and lack of sharing abound and the general level of "community" is low. Walls are erected between people.  Working on a Habitat for Humanity build, I believe contributes to the overall health of a community. All sorts of links are made, people are joined together in practical ways and the common well being of the community is increased. All volunteer participation breaks down barriers and helps this community health.

• I claim to be a follower of Jesus. Jesus promoted a generous, caring and loving lifestyle. By being involved with Habitat for Humanity I am giving practical expression to the faith that I say I practice. Faith without action is dead.

• I have been very fortunate in life to be surrounded by supportive people, to have had good health and have never had to starve. Compared to the rest of the world I am rich! This has in a sense been my heritage, and no real achievement of my own. I believe I am called to share this good fortune with others.

• Working on a Habitat house I learn heaps and extend my experience, knowledge and appreciation of life.

• On every Habitat house I have worked on there have been special moments of togetherness, excitement and shear fun. Even though there are tough moments when you wonder why you get up on a Saturday and do such a thing, it is still essentially a real good buzz to build with others.

You can follow the progress of the house on http://h4hdunedin.blogspot.com/

Be encouraged in whatever you do for the community. The impact that any volunteers service has on the overall well being of life and community, is far greater than we can imagine. Such giving is part of the very essence of life, it is what makes life worthwhile.

Photo: There will be a home housing a family here soon. At least it's a flat section this time, only the second flat section in thirteen houses.

Limited options

Powerlessness

I went to a film at the Human Rights festival last night and was reminded of a concept I learned about when I did a social work course and have seen as a reality in real life. There is a poverty that revolves around the "choices that are open to a person". The two films I watched were about homelessness. We often look at homeless people and think, "It is their fault." or "It's a choice they made." Some interviews with homeless people indicated some of the options open to them. There was a man, not now homeless (29 year old) who as a 14 year old boy was getting beaten by his step father at home and virtually was thrown out on the streets. If he went to authorities they may well take him back to his parents. First he lived in a make shift shelter in bush near his parent's home and then in another one by the rail tracks in Christchurch. He could not earn money. He could return home and get beaten. What were the options open to him? He chose to live on the streets. He chose to be involved in petty crime to stop himself from starving. What were his options? To live in a dangerous situation and face hell? Given those choices we all would end up where he was. Another woman with a son lived in hell. She kept hoping it would get better, but every time she came through her front door she dreaded the hell and abuse waiting for her and her child. While being interviewed now, years after the event, her memories brought back the tears. We may look down on her and say, "It was her choice! She had a home to go to." But what were her options? If we ended up in the same situation, what options would we see before us? I need to remember that with some of the folk I deal with. Their options in life, because of the situations they were born into, because of the events that happened to them, will have often been much more difficult and much more limited than mine. Even people with addictions. It could be either the relative comfort of addictions or the reality of the hopelessness and hell of life without them. Their options are not mine. I need to assist them by opening the way for other options, enabling them to see the possibilities.

Questioning Democracy

We in the West worship free democracy as the ideal, the ultimate in running a country. I have to say that it is the best we have, but I don't think it is without fault. I have been reading the newspapers and looking on the Internet thinking about the state of the nation and the world. Also reflecting a bit on history and how we got to be where we are.

Here is what I see as weakness in democracy. Often the true leadership needed for a country will need to make changes, stretch minds and world views to lead that society toward a more noble, wholesome and ideal community. Because of the human tendency to be unwilling to be stretched or changed, often in a democracy good leaders will be exchanged for popular leaders who will endorse the status quo or wind back the clock to that which is comfortable.

Let me illustrate. In the workplace we are often called to change and grow. Good managers will encourage professional development, experimentation, adaption and a general move toward excellence. Now it has been my experience that people often tend to be, at least initially, resistant to change. Often the only reason change happens is that we have no choice, the manager pays us, the manager is not appointed by us. I am sure that in many a workplace, if managers could get voted out by their workforce, i.e. if the workplace was a democracy, many good leaders and managers would be voted out because they are initially unpopular because of the changes they call for. I believe this happens in the church. Ministers in many denominations can be voted out. Any minister that wants to rock the boat, make changes is in fact risking his job. I believe the church often stagnates, is behind the times and loses good forward thinking leaders for this reason.

I think that in the history of democracy this is true also. In many countries, good leadership has been replaced by popular leadership and society has not progressed. In my view democracy needs to be supported by two things if it is to be effective in bringing real leadership to a society.

Education... the people who are doing the voting need to be equipped to THINK through the issues. Where education is just equipping to fulfil societal roles, it fails. It must give people the equipment that enables them to creatively, rationally tackle issues and not just react to them, if old well worn paths are being disturbed. Education has an important supporting role if democracy is to be effective.

Media with integrity... I suspect that in today's world the media have power to really "run the country" in the way they report issues and the priorities they have. They have incredible power. It is vital then that journalists and people in the media take their responsibility seriously. They are not just there for entertainment, but for information and to facilitate the discussion and awareness of the issues facing society. This is an incredible responsibility and requires real integrity.

Anyway those thoughts have been buzzing through my weird mind lately.