Hollowness

Last year, while walking home from town, I had a thought based on an observation of a tree. For months I walked past the same line of trees along the road to town. One day, something grabbed my attention. I had to stop to make sure that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me. As I took a second look, my suspicions were correct. I could see the traffic through one of the trees. My first thoughts were about how little I pay attention to things around me. It was clear that this tree in front of me was indeed hollow, and so eaten by termites, that even some of the bark allowed a clear view of the road way. However, I couldn’t see it in passing, because the outward appearance of the tree said it was healthy. It still had, and has, leaves on its branches. There were, and are, flowers blooming on it.

I then thought about how many of us claim to be “Spiritual”, but when we actually get a closer look at ourselves, we are just as hollow as the tree on the roadside. Whatever our brand of “Spirituality” is (Christians, this means us too…), we aren’t always as put together as we might think. We can say the right things, and look happy. We can look like we are doing things to show that we are the brand that we subscribe to. But, when people really get to know us, when they stop and take a closer look, they can see right through us.

We are going through a teaching series with our interns this year. The series is called “Get Over Yourself: Rebelling Against the Culture of Narcissism”. It is from a Canadian church called “The Meeting House”. You can find the podcast on iTunes, or on their website www.themeetinghouse.ca. The series talks about how we as a culture have become extremely self-absorbed. The listeners are challenged to look beyond themselves, and learn to live lives that are other person centered.

As I reflect on the teaching, I am starting to wonder about another perspective. What if we are hollow because we are neglecting to notice the hollowness of others around us? It is true that we can allow life’s distractions to eat us up to the point of appearing like we have it all together, when we really don’t. What would it look like if we focused on the needs of others first? What if our identity is not bound up in keeping up with the Jones’, but in serving them?

Stresses will come. I am not saying that when we are other person centered that life will become a bed of roses. I am wondering if we put so much emphasis on our problems that we fail to see the problems of those around us. In one of the messages, Bruxy Cavey (the teaching pastor at the Meeting House), put forth the challenge to spend enough time to get ourselves dressed in the morning to be presentable, and then spend an equal amount (if not more) of time dressing ourselves up on the inside. In another message, he challenged people to take time to list all of the things that they were thankful for each day. The time of reflection could be in the morning about the previous day’s events, or in the evening about that particular day’s events.

Cavey quoted a study, which had one group of people make a list like the one mentioned above. The participants made the list every day for ten weeks. At the end of those ten weeks the people felt better about themselves, had better physical health, and had more desire to meet the needs of others than those who did not make the list of things to be thankful for.

Maybe we aren’t as hollow as we thought. Maybe we are. Maybe our hollowness is a result of not noticing that others are hollow and need some kind of service or care. Take time to stop and really get to know someone. Enter into intentional, and authentic relationships with people, and see if they are feeling hollow. The Apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans:

“Therefore, I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:1-3 NASB)

Glimmers of Hope

After over a year of no blogs, I feel that it is time to start again. I have had one that is rolling over in my mind for quite a while now. This particular blog is not about that one. It will have to come later down the road. This one is about the glimmers of hope that I have seen while interacting with different people around Kitale.

About a month or two ago, I was approached by a street boy named Joseph. I had just passed a group of boys all greeting me, and some of them asking me to buy them bread, or to give them a few shillings. As usual, I greeted them, and said no to the ones who asked for food or money. Joseph came right up to me and asked me to help him. I said that I didn't have money for food for him, but he said that wasn't what he wanted. He showed me his hand and said that he needed medicine to treat it. I looked and saw that his right hand was indeed swollen. I thought about it for a second and told Joseph to wait for me while I finished the tasks that I had gone to town to do.

When I met him a few minutes later, I asked Joseph what had happened. He told me that the night before he was chased my a security guard, because he was sleeping somewhere he shouldn't have been. During the chase he fell and hurt his hand. My first thought was that medicine wasn't going to fix the problem. I might be going with this kid to the hospital to fix a broken hand. How much more would that cost me?

We went to a near by pharmacy and I had Joseph explain to the man behind the counter what was wrong. The pharmacist explained to me what medicines he was recommending, and explained to Joseph, how to apply the ointment and how often to take the pain killers. The total bill came to about 150 shillings (about $2 CAD). I handed the package to Joseph and explained to him that this was for him and the treatment of his hand only. He was not to sell any of it for glue or anything else. I told him that if I discovered that he sold what I bought him, that neither Meredith or I would buy him anything ever again. He promised me that he wouldn't, thanked me and left the pharmacy.

Over the next few days, any time that I was in town, Joseph would come up to me and show me his hand. I would ask him how he was doing and he would respond that things were going well. In a matter of days, Joseph was pleased to announce to me (and show me) that his hand was better. The swelling was gone and there was no more pain. He continued to thank me and every time he sees me in town, he makes a point of greeting me. He always has a big smile on his face.

Last weekend, a few of us from the community (Kenyans, and North Americans) met with a few of the community elders and the community chief for our area. This was a meeting to discuss the security issues that have come up recently. The chief wanted to let us know that in the past year since he became chief, he had started some new security measures in the community. He told us that he had some armed guards that were patrolling the streets while we slept. He gave us all his personal number to call him any time, day or night, if there was anything that we needed to call him about. He opened the floor for questions and addressed each one. About the only downfall to the meeting was that he answered his phone and left the room, on more than one occasion, while people were asking their questions or voicing their concerns.

The chief told us that we needed to be diligent when hiring people to work on our compound. We needed to do background checks, ask people who are looking for jobs a bit about their history. He told us that he was pushing the town council to improve our roads to make them drivable, and even to put new tarmac down (something that has not been done since the 60's). It is the chief's desire to make the Mili Mani community of Kitale what the Mili Mani communities of the rest of the country are.

When the meeting was over, we as a community agreed that issues of security are everyone's concern and we would do what we could to improve things. I believe that for the most part, people were feeling better about things in Mili Mani.

Every once and a while we get glimmers of hope that life can be better for the people of Kenya. It is people like Joseph showing responsibility and gratefulness when someone helps him out. It is people like Chief Sylvester standing above corruption and doing his part to protect the people he has sworn to serve. Here's hoping that something more comes from these stories and that more and more people take responsibility for the life that they live.