The Mountain We Must Climb

I believe that there is something of a significant paradigm shift taking place in this country regarding homelessness, and, for the most part, that young people are pushing that agenda.

However, passions and desires to do the right thing are often overwhelmed by the reality of just how difficult a task we face. 

The “mountain” just seems un-climbable.

In 1849, surveyors made a great discovery of Chomolungma, also known as Mount Everest - the tallest mountain in the world, at 29,029 feet.

Everest was also considered un-climbable. Anything over 24,000 feet was referred to as the “Death Zone”. Sadly, hundreds have died in the attempt to reach the top of Everest.

The first man to officially make it to the top of Everest was Sir Edmund Hillary.

Turns out, the mountain was climbable after all… it just took 100 years to do it.

Caring for the homelessness, social justice, justice ministry… call it whatever you want, but we can climb this mountain if we work together.

Homelessness is not just a mountain that we can observe from a distance. It’s not just a mountain that we attempt to climb, make it halfway up, and then turn around and go home. It’s a mountain that we can and need to intentionally climb and refuse to allow ourselves to not make it to the top.

At The Mustard Seed, with the help of literally thousands of volunteers and supporters, we will keep on climbing until we make it to the top. 

- Bill Nixon,  Director of Public Education, The Mustard Seed

@billbytheminute

Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover This Halloween

We’ve all heard the saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, and on a holiday like Halloween this adage seems to take on new meaning. Many Canadians will don a costume this Halloween to look funny, scary, or crazy. The guises we wear at Halloween remind me of the stereotypes that are often made about people experiencing homelessness because of the way they look. Visitors to The Mustard Seed often tell me that they are scared of the people on the streets because of the way they look. They take one look at someone and assume they know all about them: "They’re lazy”, “They’re an addict”, “They’re homeless”, “They’d hurt me if I stopped to talk to them”, and “They’re scary”.

Brené Brown, a social worker from the United States says, “In [our] culture of shame, we are constantly overwhelmed with feelings of fear, blame, and disconnection. This creates an ‘us and them’ world. There are people like us, and then there are ‘those other people’. And we normally work very hard to insulate ourselves from ‘those people’. As children, there were the people that we were allowed to hang out with and then there were the other kids…As adults, we live in the neighborhood where our kind live – the other neighborhoods are for the other folks. We emotionally and physically insulate ourselves from ‘the other’… We’ve developed language to describe others – sometimes we refer to them as ‘those people’, or the even more mysterious ‘people like that’… Sharing our shame with someone is painful… the natural tendency to avoid or reduce this pain is often why we start to judge and insulate ourselves using otherness. We basically blame them for their experience. We unconsciously divide people into two camps: worthy of our support and unworthy.”  I Thought it Was Just Me (But it Isn't) - Brené Brown

Homelessness is scary, and it’s painful, especially when we get to know someone who is experiencing homelessness and they share their story with us. When we hear someone’s story, we start to care about them and it hurts to see people we care about in bad situations. So instead of getting to know people, we give them a stereotype or a label that sums them up in one word so we don’t have to feel the pain of hearing their actual story.  

Last week a group of elementary students from a local school came to visit the Mustard Seed and they made sandwiches for our community. They bravely opened their minds and hearts to hear about “the other”. We gave them a tour and shared with them the stories of some of the folks we know that have been affected by poverty and homelessness. Sometimes I get discouraged and I wonder if these tours even do anything to help, but I was given some hope when I received a letter from the teacher of one student, who went back to his school and wrote about his experience in his journal. The student wrote:

“Today we went to The Mustard Seed... I learned that homeless people are not crazy drug addicts or bums, but people that have worth. I think that it is fitting that The Mustard Seed ended up in a church. The Mustard Seed is one of the best places I have seen in my life, and I am happy that we were able to go and make a difference in someone’s life, or at least a sandwich. I cannot believe that I used to think that these people were useless. I will try to donate to non-profit organizations, and make sure my donations are in good shape and can give hope to the people who receive them.” – Grade 6 Student

This Halloween, may we remember that beneath the clothes we wear, the ‘costumes’ we put on each day in our schools, our work places, and our cities, that each of us has a story, and that our stories matter, because we matter.

Let us remember that each of us has a name and we are so much more than stereotypes and labels from the way we look.

And may we have the courage to share our story with our whole heart and to hear the story of “the others” in our own communities.

Say "Hello" and Follow me on twitter @paulacornell5 or @mustardseedyeg

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The True Value of What You Give

As Christians and followers of Jesus, it is unquestionable that God has commanded us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves and to give selflessly of ourselves to those who are in need.

This is requested of us various times throughout the Bible and is an almost universally-accepted characteristic of today’s Christian. We know that when we view and treat others (especially those who make up the most vulnerable populations) with kindness and respect, we are honoring and glorifying God.

However, many of us are plagued with a feeling of inadequacy – a feeling that the hours we volunteer, the money and items we donate, and the kind deeds we do for others aren’t enough.

Though we can’t measure quantitatively what “enough” really is, we can indicate that we feel that these things aren’t truly substantial in a way that will make a "real difference" in the world – that we (and our actions) are too tiny and insignificant to really make a positive impact among all of the inequalities of this world.

When I feel this way personally, there is a verse in 2 Corinthians that I often refer back to, to shed some perspective on what it is that God truly expects of us.

2 Corinthians 8:12 tells us “Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don't have.” (NLT, 2007)

God does not expect us to save the world on our own. He does not expect us to donate millions and trillions of dollars, when we can only really spare a few. God asks us to give according to what we do have to give. He does not measure the dollar value of the gift; rather, he measures the amount of love within the giver and behind the deeds. When you give of yourself selflessly, free of expectations for rewards or praise, you are loving and serving others in the manner pleasing to God.

Organizations such as The Mustard Seed can only exist and continue to help those in need when it is assisted by the accumulation of support from each and every one of our very generous and selfless donors, volunteers and supporters. We truly appreciate all that we receive, regardless of the dollar amount given or the amount of time spent helping out.

If at any time you feel that your contributions are too small or insignificant, I urge you to remember the words of 2 Corinthians 8:12.

- Jennifer Fast, New Media Specialist, The Mustard Seed
@loveismotion222

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I Have All That I Need

Recently, I was preparing a sermon on Psalm 23 and I really got hung up on the first verse, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.” When I preach from the Psalms or read the Psalms, I strive to read or teach on the whole Psalm. Reading half a Psalm is like listening to half a song or reading half a poem—you are better served to hear all the words from the author, the musician, the poet.

I have been inspired from the words of the 23^rd Psalm throughout my life. From the young age of 10 I had to memorize the Psalm for an after-school kids club. Likely I have heard its words hundreds of times at church through the years. Earlier this year I was really inspired in a new way with the text as Joyce Rees was talking to The Mustard Seed staff at our annual spiritual retreat. Because of the inspiration I received, I knew that I had to respond with pen in hand, and my latest sermon is a result of that. 

The Lord is my Shepherd;

I shall not want (NASB);

I lack nothing (NIV);

I have all that I need (NLT) 

In the one-third world today it seems that my one-year-old iPhone is old news and that everyone keeps telling me I need a tablet to be more effective in my job. I imagine this mindset clashes fairly hard with the writer’s intent when he wrote, I shall not want. I feel that if I lived closer to an ‘I lack nothing’ lifestyle, my neighbors and those around me in need would be a lot better off, because I would be thinking of their needs a lot more often than my own. 
                                   

Where does this longing come from? Why can’t I stop and smell the roses and enjoy today? Why do I worry about tomorrow or think about that bigger house or vacation property? I came across a poem when preparing for my sermon which challenged me on these very questions. It was written by a 14 year old named Jason Lehman:

It was spring, but it was summer I wanted,
The warm days, and the great outdoors.
It was summer, but it was fall I wanted,
The colorful leaves, and the cool, dry air.
It was fall, but it was winter I wanted,
The beautiful snow, and the joy of the holiday season.
It was winter, but it was spring I wanted,
The warmth and the blossoming of nature.
I was a child, but it was adulthood I wanted,
The freedom and respect.
I was 20, but it was 30 I wanted,
To be mature, and sophisticated.
I was middle-aged, but it was 20 I wanted,
The youth and the free spirit.
I was retired, but it was middle-age I wanted,
The presence of mind without limitations.
My life was over, and I never got what I wanted.

This poem challenges me to live in the moment and appreciate each day as a blessing from God. When life deals you a curveball as it does to me, listen to the powerful words in verse 2 & 3 from the 23^rd Psalm:

He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.

Come to the Good Shepherd today for rest, for refreshment and to find fulfillment for your life today, and tomorrow. God is enough and will show you that you truly lack nothing; that you have all you need and that you shall not want.

- Byron Bradley, Student Engagement Coordinator, The Mustard Seed

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Your Own Sunshine

Well, the snow and the chilly temperatures in Calgary have promptly arrived!  In usual Calgary fashion, the weather this morning was an abrupt contrast from the sunny +19 temperature of this past Thanksgiving weekend.

If you’re like me, or the other 1,000,000+ people who call this city home, you probably scoffed at the scattering of white flurries and ice that lined the lawns and roads this morning as you looked out your window and reluctantly dug out your cold-weather boots and car scraper. Some of you may have left the house early on your morning commute, only to find that the rest of the entire city had precisely the same idea. You might also have commented on the bad winter drivers - the drivers who either don’t change their driving habits to accommodate the slippery weather conditions, or those who drive as if it’s the very first time they’ve ever seen snow.

However, regardless of the not-so-ideal weather conditions happening outside of our windows, there is a perspective we can choose to adopt in our lives – a different way of “seeing” things - that will help to stop our attitudes from following suit and also freezing over. It may entail thinking out-of-the-box (along with a dash of creativity), but there is a meaningful silver lining to the situations life finds us in that are generally labelled as “negative” or “unfortunate”. We can choose to concentrate on these silver linings to help make our lives a little bit sunnier.

You can choose to be thankful for the heating bill in your mailbox, for it means that you have been warm.  You can choose to appreciate the carpet you have to vacuum and the counters you have to scrub, for it means you have a house to live in. You can choose to be grateful for the load of homework you need to tackle, for it means you have access to education. You can choose to be thankful for the parking spot you finally locate at the far end of the parking lot, for it means you have been blessed with transportation and also with legs that can walk the distance. You can be grateful for the dinner you still have to cook even though you’re exhausted from work, because it means you have food to nourish your body.  You can be grateful for the taxes you pay, for it means you are employed. You can appreciate your alarm clock that wakes you in the early morning, for it means you have the health and strength to rise to meet the day. You can choose to be thankful for struggles and challenges in your life, for once you overcome them you learn something new and grow as a person, as well as re-discover your own strength.

Similarly, we can even find reasons to be thankful for the snow and the cold. The cold intensifies the pleasure of life’s little “warm luxuries”, such as hot chocolate, soft fuzzy socks and cuddling by the fireplace. The coming of winter means that the lively Christmas season is near. Feeling the cold now makes us appreciate Calgary’s sunny and warm summer days that much more when they are upon us. And everything looks that much more magical blanketed in a layer of glittering snow and frost.

As we approach these delicate last few weeks between Thanksgiving and the approaching Christmas season, let’s work to keep in the forefront of our minds the many small ways we are blessed that often go unrecognized… even when we are on our way outside to shovel the snowed-over driveway.


- Jennifer Fast, New Media Specialist, The Mustard Seed
@loveismotion222

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