Friends + Strangers = Family

(Originally written on June 26, 2008)

Photo by: Jenn (theflyingrat)

I began my day at one of the area hospitals. I had been asked by a church member to come and pray with a friend of hers who was to undergo a biopsy procedure. I was not the only one there. There was a collection of people - some were friends, some were family, and some were strangers. For me, I only knew about half of the group. The rest I had never seen or met before. The same would have been true for the others as well. We gathered in one corner of the lobby, formed a circle, and joined hands to pray.

I did not know either of the people whose hands I held.

The thing that struck me, however, is that it didn’t matter.

In that moment, we all were single minded. We were completely joined in a common endeavor. Even though we were strangers to each other, we were connected. We were a fellowship of believers. We were a different parts of the same body. We were a family of faith. We were far from strangers.

Blest be the tie that binds…

We Owe Them Better

Commercialism. Consumerism. Consumption.
Nearly insatiable degrees of want.
Enough is no longer enough.
You must "measure up" to the standards set by a rather fickle culture.

Just because.

I'm not sure how it happened. We didn't set out to do it. However, somehow, these are among the things that we seem to have taught our children. Now, let me be clear. I'm not a doomsday kind of person. I have great faith that the young folk of this world will sift through all the confusing messages we will have sent them during their growing up years and that they will turn out alright. Some will even be great.

But, they shouldn't have to do so much "sifting." We owe them better.

Case in point. The largest front page headline of the February 23, 2008 edition of the Gainesville Times read, "What Can You Buy for $270 Million?" It was a Mega Millions lottery article. The article reported that $270 million would enable the purchase of 7,468 BMW 1351 Coupes, 20,000 double-wide trailers in the Oregon mountains, Lake Lanier Islands, or 90 million lattes from Starbucks (at two lattes a day, at $3 a pop, it would take you 100,000 years to drink them all). While I admit thinking about it can be fun, I would have liked to have seen a headline like, "How Could You Change the World with $270 Million", or, "Who Would You Help if You Had $270 Million."

But I suppose an article like that wouldn't sell papers. It wouldn't sell lottery tickets either.

(Photo by Ben Ostowsky)