GREED

Greed and the economy are hot topics right now in the news and around the water cooler, from Wall Street, to AIG bonuses, to the unemployment rate and more importantly whether you yourself will soon be a part of that statistic. But you can watch the news 24/7 or go on the internet to hear all the talking heads beat that subject into the ground.

I want to talk about greed in a personal way, because it's very easy to blame someone else and not look in the mirror at myself. My wife happens to work at a rather large financial institution and I remember her coming home one day several years ago saying that one of the economic gurus in the company was concerned that Americans had begun using their homes as ATM machines. Taking the rising equity out to finance remodels, vacations, swimming pools, new cars and college educations. I thought that was an interesting way of looking at things, but then proceeded to do the exact thing he was talking about myself. Let's see, new kitchen appliances, pool table, a couple of vacations, new furniture, new bed, new windows for the house. I could go on, but you get the picture and I am still getting the bills!

Now just before all this bad economic news hit last year I went on a mission project to a village in Kenya called Rionchogu. I had never been to a third world country before and even though I had read about the living conditions, I couldn't relate. But, after spending 4 days in this village with no toilets, no running water, no electricity, etc. I survived, quite well actually, and I came to realize how much I take for granted and how much I indulge myself living in the OC. It's not that I want to live without electricity or running water or toilets. It's that I don't want these children, in this village, to get diseases they don't have to get just because of dirty water, or live in lifelong poverty because they can't get an education, or die from malaria because they didn't have a mosquito net.

What do you see in his eyes?

Before I left on the trip my iPod stopped working. Well, I couldn't spend all that time on a plane traveling and not have an iPod, so I went out and spent $300 on a brand new 160 GB model. Hmmm, ya know, $300 bucks will allow a child to go to secondary school for a year in Kenya.

Greed? Selfish? Indulgent? I'll let you decide.

According to author Erwin McManus in his book "Uprising" the opposite of greed is generosity. He once thought that the opposite of greed was poverty since at the time he was defending his monastic lifestyle. But what he came to realize was that the true opposite of greed was not creating poorness in his life but living a life of generosity. That's a life I want to live. Now, I am not going ask my family to sell our house and go live in in a commune. But what I do want to ask of myself and of my family is to give more away. To invest our talents, not just for our own gain, but to help others. The unhappiest people I know are those who hoard their wealth.

Well, you know I love video, so here is a music video to a song from Matthew West called "The Motions" It expresses for me a deep "e"motion. I desire to live a life of meaning. I don't want to just go through the motions anymore! Yes, there will be a cost and I am not just talking financially. I hope you will join me in that quest. In fact, as this is now my 4th post, if I am making any sense to you, or you are feeling a little tug as you read, please comment for all to see or email me privately. Though one person can make a huge difference, there also is strength in numbers!

Eaar

Fruit

The fruit doesn't fall far from the tree. My Mom!

Well, I had 17 more potential "Seed" post's lined up, but I think I made that point already. Relieved? :) So now I am on to Fruit. Why fruit? In church circles, that is a common word, but I am not sure even there, we really dig deep as to its meaning in our daily lives.

A great definition I like to apply to the word fruit is from management guru Peter Drucker when asked about the "bottom line" for charitable organizations in his book "Managing the Non-Profit Organization". He said:

"the measurable product of any not for profit institution, is changed lives"!!

Gosh, I love clear, precise to the point statements that you can't wiggle out of.

Now, I have talked about some non profits like Go and Do Likewise and Kid Works and there are many, many thousands of them in this country and hundreds of thousands around the world doing great things and I applaud them. But this blog is not about organizations and institutions. It is about You!! And Me and our Talents and our Gifts. Gifts we have been given and gifts we are to give.

Now before you tune me out and and say you don't have any talents or gifts, nothing of value to anyone else, slow down. Because the greatest thing you can give away is simply yourself. Kinda ties into what Christ said when He said to "Love your neighbor as yourself". I've got two stories I want to use to make my point. One is personal to me and one was personal to a small group of people, but now has become quite public.

The first one is about my Mom, Ilabelle Oden. She is 84 years old and lives in a hospice care facility in Springfield, Oregon. In spring of 2008, I got a worried call from my brother Ron who was told by the nurses and Dr's where she was living at the time, that my Mom was dying. He said I better get up there soon if I wanted to say goodbye. Now he wasn't convinced that all was being done that could be, that they were giving up on her, but he said it doesn't look good. So I flew up that weekend to see her and perhaps say my goodbye. After I spent time with my Mom Saturday morning, my brother said she looked better than the day before I arrived, better than she had in months. Maybe it was the change in medication's, my brother insisted on (thanks Ron) or just maybe seeing her 2 sons together (she hadn't seen me in 2 years), somehow encouraged her to not give up. I can't say for sure.

But lets push forward one year later, to just last weekend. I get a call from my brother that my Mom had just been visited by Mrs. Oregon International Debra Gilmour, who came to present her with a boquet of flowers and a tiara, and to tell her that she had been nominated to be the Marquis Rose Queen and ride in the Portland Rose Parade in May.

What? Say again! The woman who was days or weeks away from dying could be riding in a parade??

You see my mom not only didn't give up, but she recovered well enough to be a helper and encourager to many others in the Hospice Care facility she is in that were discouraged or just needed a hug. So they nominated her for for this award. With simple gestures, she bore Fruit, she "changed lives".

My next story I won't explain in writing because this video tells it all. It's only 5 minutes and if it doesn't touch your heart in someway, you'll want to wonder why. I picked up on it at Tangle.com.

A simple gift from one person to another, Mallory to Sara, almost strangers in fact, in front of a small crowd in a small town in Washington. And if the story never left that field, never got on Tangle or ESPN or wherever its been in this internet world. If no one but those hundred knew, it was still a Home Run, a gesture that bore fruit, that "changed lives".

So, who are you going to pick up today, whose life are you going to touch, who will you help touch a base, whose life will you change?

Or for you linear thinkers, another quote from Peter Drucker I like says this

"What are you going to do on Monday, that's different?"

Eaar

P.S. You don't really think that Sara missing that bag and turning back was just some weird accident, do ya? That there wasn't some greater purpose at work?