Christmas Eve 2012, Calgary: Minus 25 degrees celsius and FREE-ZING. There went our idea of walking downtown
handing out our carefully made homemade care packages for the homeless. I was wondering what to do, as its no easy
task taking two boys under the age of 6 out on the best of days.
I decided we would drive around downtown and pass out the
packages through the window. Easy,
right? It was a brilliant plan except
for the fact that there was no one out on the streets. I decided to pop into our local homeless
shelter and they graciously allowed us to stand at the door while guests
entered the building to give out our gifts.
The kids loved handing out our packages to the guests as
they came through the door. I was having
fun as well, but this nagging thought kept going through my mind as the guests
hustled along through the doors after they had received their gift. "Does this truly make them feel
special?", I thought to myself. My
answer to myself was, "Of course, how could it not!", but the more I
saw our little Christmas joy as a do-good assembly line, the more dissatisfied
I became.
Don't get me wrong, I know the guests were thankful. It was wonderful to see the smiles on their
faces, but I wonder how many people head down to the shelters around Christmas,
do their good deed, and then leave? I
didn't want to just give and leave, yet that's exactly what we were doing:
giving then leaving. On the way back to
the van, my six year old asked; "Can we go get fries now?". Good deed done - now lets get fries. Am I the only oddball to not be ok with
this?
I wanted to give these homeless guests something greater
that day. I wanted to give them my full
attention, an engaging conversation. I
wanted to give them more than a two second smile before they had to carry on
through the door. I would have loved to sit
down at a table to shoot the breeze for a few minutes with even just a few of
them. I wanted them to feel valued.... noticed.
It took us only fifteen minutes to give all our packages
away before we left to go back to our comfy lives.
When it comes to giving to the homeless, I don't do it to
be altruistic or to even teach my kids about "giving back". I don't do it so we can be reminded about how
lucky we are. I do it because my Savior
adores the poor. I do it because I see
humanity in them. I do it because within
the depths of my soul I care earnestly for their well-being. So you can see why a quick handout isn't
enough for me to give. I long to give
them more than that. I believe they
deserve more.
I pray my dissatisfaction can turn into tangible change
in my own life in how I interact with the poor throughout 2013.
- Connie Jakab
Originally posted on January 7, 2013 here.
Check out Connie Jakab's blog at http://culturerebel.com where she blogs
about her family's adventures in serving the less fortunate and her continued
rebellion to what culture tells us. Be
sure to pick up her book, "Culture Rebel - because the world has enough
desperate housewives" at http://culturerebel.com/books/. You can find Connie on Twitter at
@ConnieJakab
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DeleteThis is totally understandable! In the west we have been given this idea that you address issues such as homelessness or poverty, with material objects because over and over again we tell a story of material poverty. (I understand your packages were meant to be a blessing and not a solution, im just thinking outloud here!) I think people who have an awareness within their heart will always feel uncomfortable with this because we know poverty and these things we faced are more then a material issues.
ReplyDeleteBlessings on your journey forward
-L