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

Mango Seeds

Is There Hope in These Eyes?

Ok, no comments yet on the first post. Come on people, don't be shy. I was sure some, smart somebody was going to ask why it was named "Seeds" and what does that have to do with Five Talents, Africa, etc. And now this post is named "Mango Seeds"! I'm sure all of you who know me well are wondering if Watermelon Seeds is next. Well, it would be but I really prefer eating seedless watermelon, and there is no future in that. So, here is the correct story.

As I was flying to Kenya last year I was reading a book called "The Forest In The Seed" (you can download a free copy here at disciplenations.org) and on one of the inside cover pages it reprints a traditional Kenyan proverb. "You can count the number of seeds in a mango, but you can't count the number of mango's in a seed." That really struck me as I played that over and over in my mind stuck on the plane for 20 hours and I almost made that the opening scene of my video. I visualized an animated Mango tree shaking back and forth like Elvis, dropping fruit and then all these cute little trees growing up around it.

Still a little lost? About five years ago I produced a pro-bono video for an organization called Setting Captives Free. At the time the video was made into DVD's for people to speak with and to put on their website www.settingcaptivesfree.com. The video had to do with pornography addiction, not a very popular subject to talk about publicy at the time, but something I had personally struggled with. After a year or so I kinda forgot about it. Then, right at the time I was struggling to make the decision whether to go to Kenya to make the video for Go and Do Likewise, I saw a testimony from someone who said they had found freedom from their addiction through this ministry of Setting Captives Free and that they had learned of it through a video on pornography addiction on YouTube.com. Curious me, I went to the internet to see who and what this was and lo and behold it was my video. It had been placed on YouTube for over a year before by someone I didn't even know (and still don't) and already over 25,000 people had watched it and I hadn't even known it.

Here is that video:




I planted a small seed, someone else did the watering and now many people are being blessed.

Now in my first post I said I wasn't pushing everyone in my world (just some of you, and you know who you are) to go to Africa. I say that because while I live in a relatively affluent part of Orange County, California called Fountain Valley. I live just a stones throw away (literally) from a city known for its pockets of deep poverty called Santa Ana. Just five minutes from where I live, in the middle of one of the poorest areas of Santa Ana, is an organization that is doing some of the best work to lift people up I have ever seen. The name of the organization is Kid Works and it reminds me in many ways of the work the organization I serve with, Go and Do Likewise, is doing in Rionchogu, Kenya. Focusing on children and families, education and health.

Kid Works mission statement is to:

  "Restore at-risk neighborhood's... one life at a time".

Wow, is that a great mission statement? It's clear they know what their are charged with and how they are going about it, just in that one simple but profound sentence.

Here is a video they did called "This Is My Neighborhood"

And here is a link to an article about them from the front page of the Orange County Register.

So, as I sit here and write this blog I am feeling moved to write a personal (and family) mission statement as clear and focused as the one Kid Works wrote. Perhaps one that includes my Five Talents or has a vision for the next 10 years of my life. When I read theirs I was moved and I am sure many people have been moved into action to help with their mission because of that simple yet powerful message. In fact, a good friend of mine Ric Seaver interned there for a month and was so impressed with the work being done there, he now works for them and is their Volunteer Coordinator.

Now again the point of this blog is not to get you to move to Santa Ana and volunteer at Kid Works (but you could! just contact Ric@kidworksonline.org). The point of this blog is to ask what are your Five Talents, or Three Talents or One Talent and are you using them to serve others? Or are you using them only to serve yourself?

I remember a church I visited in Washington while attending the wedding of a friend of mine's daughter, that had posted right over their door as you left, a sign that said this:

"You will have your needs met,

on the way to meeting the needs of others".

You know, I couldn't say it any better!

Eaar (pronouced Ecar)

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