1. If you are tired take a nap
People here wake up with the sun and work very hard. For that reason they don’t mind taking a nap in the afternoon. When you are tired you should rest, if you work hard you know it helps you do more, so you should not feel guilty. We spend too much time trying to present ourselves as busy and hide when we are not busy. Our infatuation with busyness has made us less productive and less real. Rest is a part of a healthy, whole and Godly life.
2. Bench seats are better than buckets
You can fit more people on a bench seat. We love bucket seats because the are customized to our individual backsides. For us bench seats tend to cost less and are considered an inferior kind of seat. But here they are preferred. Mostly because you can fit more people on a bench seat. The bench seat as a concept is a shared seat. A seat with room for more than one. Here I have learned to value a world set up for community and sharing. Our often vicious individuality allows for tremendous personal accomplishment but leaves every one else alienated and lonely. It is just better to have a seat for two than for one.
3. A sacrificial life for the poor is possible
I have discovered living here that sustainable ministry to the poor is possible. Burn out is not inevitable. If you have a rhythm of prayer, reflection and renewal with a community of people who are not planning to move on to the bigger better thing, what seems virtually impossible in our context (think about when you have seen it) a life time commitment by a community of people to the poor is suddenly a realistic possibility. The pastors we have worked with have no ambitions beyond God. They want to serve the poor (as they are) for as long as they can. And they are content to do just that.
4. Sometimes being indirect is better
Man this has been a hard lesson to learn. Sure, I still believe that there are times when we need to be direct about something, but all the time? Not even close. Saying something indirectly can preserve a persons dignity, honor and love them but not embarrassing them and still get the point across very nicely, if you could do it that way why wouldn’t we?
5. Goals are not more important than people or God
The western love affair with accomplishment and achievement has produced a lot of good things but being so driven by goals that we fail to notice that life is made of up people is not one of them. We all know that people are important but when it comes to achieving sometime people can become the currency of our goals. We care for people because they help us get where we want to go. This inversion of the kingdom priority, on its face is hard to recognize. But it is dangerous and destroys the work of love inside us. people have to supersede our goals. In fact, our goals need to serve the people we are called to love. Period.
6. Air conditioning is not a necessity
Neither is a bed, or hot water, or an oven, or lots of things we think of as household essentials, we can live on a lot less and be very happy and comfortable. Sometimes convenience and luxury are mistaken for necessity because we have been duped by the ad-man and we really start to think that there are things we can not live without. People can be even more happy when their lives are simplified.
7. Burnout is connected to the wrong expectations
People burn out, or bug out because they are addicted to success. We expect it, and when we do not get it we think something is wrong with us (or more usually) the ministry we are a part of. get sick and tired and want to move on because we have to see huge results or we feel life things are failing. I have seen almost no burn out here (although conditions are decidedly worse) in part because they know that things are a struggle, but that God is good in the midst of it. They are okay with small victories and less grandiose results.
8. Poverty is not greater than the joy of Jesus Christ.
When I look at the conditions that some of the God’s people live in here, I wonder how it is that they do not live in constant despair. Ironically, they seem more psychologically healthy than we are. Poverty strangles hope from people, but when they know Jesus poverty, in that regard, is defeated by the joy that Jesus offers. Poverty is a powerful evil, but it is no match for the presence, friendship, and love of Jesus Christ. For real.
9. Details change but God is the same and so am I
We put too much emphasis on circumstances. We tend to believe circumstances are the parts of our lives that are hard or nice or need to change. When in the end circumstances have little to do with who we are. If I am a content person, I will be content whether I have filet minion, or just rice. If I am discontent as a person even the filet will not be right. If we are stretched out on the gallows or living like the Jeffersons, we have access to joy AND complaints. We will tend to pick one or the other because of who we are not because of where we are or what is happening to us. No matter where God places us, he gives us enough grace and access to real joy while we are there. And no matter what goes right for us we can still find fault in it and wish it were different. I realize here that I need to stop trying to change the things that don’t change me. I can not make the lines I wait in go any faster but I can enjoy the slowing down of my life that the line affords me.
1O. sometimes the most spiritual thing a person can do is cry
Living close to the poor, and getting to know them; even fighting for them does not change the tragedy of poverty. Sometimes I think action will give me a good nights sleep, because “I did what I could.” But when you work with the poor you realize there is pain that is too great for our resources. As our resources have been swallowed up in the needs we have seen we too have reached our limits. And those limits remind us that this world needs its true leader and the pain we see we simply can not solve. All we can do if feel that pain with those who suffer and let our hearts be reminded that we need Jesus. Sometimes the only thing we can do, sometimes the right thing to do, is cry.
People here wake up with the sun and work very hard. For that reason they don’t mind taking a nap in the afternoon. When you are tired you should rest, if you work hard you know it helps you do more, so you should not feel guilty. We spend too much time trying to present ourselves as busy and hide when we are not busy. Our infatuation with busyness has made us less productive and less real. Rest is a part of a healthy, whole and Godly life.
2. Bench seats are better than buckets
You can fit more people on a bench seat. We love bucket seats because the are customized to our individual backsides. For us bench seats tend to cost less and are considered an inferior kind of seat. But here they are preferred. Mostly because you can fit more people on a bench seat. The bench seat as a concept is a shared seat. A seat with room for more than one. Here I have learned to value a world set up for community and sharing. Our often vicious individuality allows for tremendous personal accomplishment but leaves every one else alienated and lonely. It is just better to have a seat for two than for one.
3. A sacrificial life for the poor is possible
I have discovered living here that sustainable ministry to the poor is possible. Burn out is not inevitable. If you have a rhythm of prayer, reflection and renewal with a community of people who are not planning to move on to the bigger better thing, what seems virtually impossible in our context (think about when you have seen it) a life time commitment by a community of people to the poor is suddenly a realistic possibility. The pastors we have worked with have no ambitions beyond God. They want to serve the poor (as they are) for as long as they can. And they are content to do just that.
4. Sometimes being indirect is better
Man this has been a hard lesson to learn. Sure, I still believe that there are times when we need to be direct about something, but all the time? Not even close. Saying something indirectly can preserve a persons dignity, honor and love them but not embarrassing them and still get the point across very nicely, if you could do it that way why wouldn’t we?
5. Goals are not more important than people or God
The western love affair with accomplishment and achievement has produced a lot of good things but being so driven by goals that we fail to notice that life is made of up people is not one of them. We all know that people are important but when it comes to achieving sometime people can become the currency of our goals. We care for people because they help us get where we want to go. This inversion of the kingdom priority, on its face is hard to recognize. But it is dangerous and destroys the work of love inside us. people have to supersede our goals. In fact, our goals need to serve the people we are called to love. Period.
6. Air conditioning is not a necessity
Neither is a bed, or hot water, or an oven, or lots of things we think of as household essentials, we can live on a lot less and be very happy and comfortable. Sometimes convenience and luxury are mistaken for necessity because we have been duped by the ad-man and we really start to think that there are things we can not live without. People can be even more happy when their lives are simplified.
7. Burnout is connected to the wrong expectations
People burn out, or bug out because they are addicted to success. We expect it, and when we do not get it we think something is wrong with us (or more usually) the ministry we are a part of. get sick and tired and want to move on because we have to see huge results or we feel life things are failing. I have seen almost no burn out here (although conditions are decidedly worse) in part because they know that things are a struggle, but that God is good in the midst of it. They are okay with small victories and less grandiose results.
8. Poverty is not greater than the joy of Jesus Christ.
When I look at the conditions that some of the God’s people live in here, I wonder how it is that they do not live in constant despair. Ironically, they seem more psychologically healthy than we are. Poverty strangles hope from people, but when they know Jesus poverty, in that regard, is defeated by the joy that Jesus offers. Poverty is a powerful evil, but it is no match for the presence, friendship, and love of Jesus Christ. For real.
9. Details change but God is the same and so am I
We put too much emphasis on circumstances. We tend to believe circumstances are the parts of our lives that are hard or nice or need to change. When in the end circumstances have little to do with who we are. If I am a content person, I will be content whether I have filet minion, or just rice. If I am discontent as a person even the filet will not be right. If we are stretched out on the gallows or living like the Jeffersons, we have access to joy AND complaints. We will tend to pick one or the other because of who we are not because of where we are or what is happening to us. No matter where God places us, he gives us enough grace and access to real joy while we are there. And no matter what goes right for us we can still find fault in it and wish it were different. I realize here that I need to stop trying to change the things that don’t change me. I can not make the lines I wait in go any faster but I can enjoy the slowing down of my life that the line affords me.
1O. sometimes the most spiritual thing a person can do is cry
Living close to the poor, and getting to know them; even fighting for them does not change the tragedy of poverty. Sometimes I think action will give me a good nights sleep, because “I did what I could.” But when you work with the poor you realize there is pain that is too great for our resources. As our resources have been swallowed up in the needs we have seen we too have reached our limits. And those limits remind us that this world needs its true leader and the pain we see we simply can not solve. All we can do if feel that pain with those who suffer and let our hearts be reminded that we need Jesus. Sometimes the only thing we can do, sometimes the right thing to do, is cry.
