My Constant

A little more than a week ago, a colleague of mine was standing in front of a packed church in Kenya on a communion Sunday handing out food and necessary supplies to children and women who were wearing nothing but rags. He said that as he stood there watching the poorest of the poor lining up for basic needs, he couldn't help think that here was a group of people the Jesus had come for specifically. These 800 people were truly God's children.

This was in a middle class neighborhood church in Meru, Kenya on the side of Mount Kenya near the equator. The church, not unlike the one I attend myself, was in a neighborhood with homes and businesses and was established by allegedly fiscally sound parishioners. Yet, when a survey was conducted on request of the new in coming Pastor, it was discovered that nearly 200 families and over 500 children were literally hanging on by their fingertips, often going without food or money for days at a time. Needless to say, this came as quite a shock to this neighborhood church. In a country so used to extreme poverty, they had assumed themselves above such needs, and while willing to help their neighbors, it was with the understanding that God's blessings would be waiting for them when they went home at night. To discover such need on their own doorsteps was eye-opening. As a church, they repented of their blindness to the need within their own community and vowed then and there to make sure that none of the 200 families went without from that day forward.

The 800 people were at the church that Sunday to sign up as the second group of neighbors to need help. 800 in addition to the 200 families already in dire straits. In Africa, there is one surplus commodity and that is need.

When I heard this story, I think my heart broke a little. Not from the knowledge that so many people need help, but from the idea of a church repenting of its sin and seeing the truth in its very midst. I imagine this scene repeating all over the United States again and again and the American people coming back to God by discovering the suffering in their own communities. My heart yearns for just such a reawakening. But I am afraid that we here are still in the dark, still in denial about the suffering on our own doorstep. We are still looking for a bailout on a physical level, when we need a bailout on a spiritual one.

On the TV show, LOST, there is a time travel element called the Constant. On the show, the Constant is supposed to be the one person that you can focus on so that you don't slip away into madness during moments of temporal flux. We are in a state of flux right now that is in no way temporary. What is our constant? The President? Congress? Wall Street? What is keeping the American people from slipping into madness during this period?

When I left my last job, I knew only one thing that I wanted in my next job - a feeling of worth and value. At my previous job, I was told many times that I was expendable - that my skills were a dime a dozen and that I was easily replaced with others who required less money. This corporate mercenary tactic seemed prevalent in the entire capitalist system. Loyalty, job performance, nor skill seemed to matter so much as the bottom line. As long as the company needed to make more money (none of which ever trickled down to the employees actually doing the job) nobody was safe. If you played the game, and played it well, there were stock options and bonuses and all sorts of perks. If you didn't play it well, there was only hard work with little hope of reward. It seemed to me at the time like a fiscal popularity contest, like something a High School senior in the best clique might create. Those with the perks, kept the perks. Those without the perks were expendable and easily replaced by others without the perks.

Is it any wonder now that so many people are upset with AIG and their guaranteed bonuses? The people who signed these contracts were the people that were upholding the status quot. They were the people with the bonuses giving bonuses to other people with bonuses. The average schmoe at AIG probably doesn't get a thing. And what justification do they have for receiving their bonus? It was guaranteed. Not earned. Guaranteed. Why does the High School Quarterback get to be King of the Prom? Because it's guaranteed. That's the way we always do it. That's the way that it is done. And as long as the system remains constant, business can continue as usual.

That is their constant. That is their justice. Bonuses guaranteed and not earned. We are doing fine while others suffer because that's the way it works. That our secretary, Sally, might be losing her home to foreclosure because AIG had to lay her off doesn't bother us, so long as our bonus comes through on time and in the guaranteed amount. We can go home tonight content with the fine legal system that protects our guaranteed money.

Don't you just wish for one moment that you can shake these people and say, "Open your eyes! Look at the world around you! Look at the suffering in this world! Now, tell me how you can justify such excess?"

Don't you wish someone would shake you and say the same thing?

I don't make much money. I never have. I doubt that I ever will. I don't hate people with money, but I hate people who think that money is the end all and be all of life. I look at someone like Bill Gates who repented of his sin and started giving away the vast amounts of money he had to help people around the world. I look at Bono who spends almost as much time fighting for the poor of Africa as he does glamming around the world as a rock star. These people were given wealth by God and have discovered that they have a responsibility to use that gift to help others. We all have that responsibility - no matter how big the gift we've received. I try to help out as much as possible, but I know that I don't do nearly enough. I am in awe of those that do. But money, in and of itself, is a tool and not a measure of value. Value is what we get from our use of the tool, not the tool itself. In that case, I feel like I get value for my money. Lots of value. I may not make much money, but I earn all that I make, and I get even more value from it.

For my constant is the Lord,
the Creator of all things,
the arbiter of value,
the distributor of gifts,
and the scales of justice.
My bonus is the kingdom of heaven,
my prize the brotherhood of saints,
and God is my ultimate rest.
Until then, I will work for him.