The value of a person

As I've mentioned, I'm reading The Hole in our Gospel by Richard Stearns. In one chapter, he writes about how we in the 21st century have the awareness of human suffering (due to media and technology), the access to places of hardship (unlike even 50 years ago), and the ability (knowledge, wealth..) to do something about it. Why then, don't we? Stearns goes on to quote Bono who had these words..."Fifteen thousand Africans are dying each day of preventable, treatable diseases...if we're honest, there's no way we could conclude that such mass death day after day would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else. Certainly not North America or Europe, or Japan. An entire continent bursting into flames? Deep down, if we really accept that their lives- African lives- are equal to ours, we would all be doing more to put the fire out. It's an uncomfortable truth."

This uncomfortable truth of a "value hierarchy" reached my consciousness in 3 memorable experiences. The first was pre-kiddos, so it was more than 10 years ago when I remember reading the newspaper at our kitchen table. The article I was reading was describing the collapse of a deck at a restaurant/bar somewhere in the U.S. that crushed people below it and killed many people. The initial description of the restaurant was that it was on some waterfront, and in my mind, I had imagined some upper class, swanky kind of restaurant. I was reading in horror about this event when further in the article it described that the restaurant/bar was in a lower class area of the community. Before it could get away, I caught the thought that suddenly considered this less of a tragedy than I had just 30 seconds before as I read. This is unacceptable. Due to the nature of the flesh to compare and compete, due to media's influence in my life, due to a whole host of things, I was counting the people who had died as less valuable than others.

The second experience came about seven years ago, when we were moving out to our acreage. At the same time as our move, I was leading a 30 Hour Famine event for students at our church. This about wrecked me. Our move was an upsizing move for us. Early on in the moving process, I went into a furniture store and found a leather sectional couch and coffee table that I thought would look great in the corner of our new living room. Every piece of furniture in our previous house, save 3, were hand-me-down gifts from family members. I began to really desire that sectional couch and table. At the same time, I was reading so much material about desperate poverty in our world, and we had decided to depict 29,000 children who die each day by forming paper chains of 29,000 links around our church. I sat down to cut those construction paper strips. I did the math with stacks of 11x17 sheets of construction paper, and armed with a paper cutter, I began to cut. And cut. And cut. And cut. The number of strips grew staggering to me. I began to cry, and at one point, I remember grabbing a whole handful of strips and praying, "God, secure these kids in your hand, and forgive me for everything within me that allows this to be a reality." I remember questioning why my desire for a couch could cause my heart to beat so much faster than my desire for justice and mercy for these kids. Again, I recognized that my value system was messed up. (we didn't buy the couch, and we survived great without it.)

Third, we live out in the country, and we have cats. We have 2 domesticated cats inside, and several farm cats and kitties that have roamed our acreage in the past 6 years. This whole idea of how we value people differently has so clearly been a lesson God has been teaching me through these cats. I know our indoor cats well. They have names...Chloe and Sammi. We know their personalities to a tee. They get plenty of food and water, lots of strokes and snuggles, and we grow concerned at any illness or injury they might develop. The outdoor cats, however, are a different story. They have to fend for themselves and their babies. We sometimes put food out for them, sometimes not. We sometimes hear raucous cat fights in the middle of the night, and this doesn't keep us awake for long. We've even lost some kittens and cats out here, and we don't experience the sadness that I know we will when Sammi and Chloe die. Why? Well, somehow my mind tells me that these cats are more primitive, less valuable than our indoor cats (even though Sammi was an outdoor kitten found on the side of a country road). I must not believe that they feel the same way as our indoor cats; I convince myself that they are accustomed to their circumstances and that is just the way it is. Sadly, my mind can so quickly do this same thing with people.

It is my prayer to see people as God sees them. My prayer is to see each person and immediately think, "Beloved....made in the image of God and created for His glory and purpose." What if we saw God in each person and all that the person was created to be? That would be transforming in the way we relate to one another and how we live.

I was with a friend named Brion today, and we were prayer walking together. Brion shares the Gospel in word with just about everyone he meets. This would normally make me very uncomfortable, and I was trying to figure out today why I don't feel that way when I am with Brion and we approach people. I figured it out today in the park. I watched Brion engage with two men in the park who knew a lot of Scripture, but were in pretty rough condition. I watched Brion as he carefully listened to these men, and as he shared with them. And then I knew what the difference was with Brion. He can evangelize the way he does because he genuinely values each person he comes into contact with. He sees them as valuable and made in the image of God...He genuinely loves and cares for the people he meets on the street...in fact, he'd take them into his home, and has done so! He befriends loads of people and finds joy in them just as they are. This is a gift from God, and I pray that God would grant us all such a gift on a daily basis.