More Interesting than Rob Bell

My last post was some pretty crappy writing, but it was late and it was a blog (which are all "shitty first drafts"). 

As a follow-up, once there was a lot full of tents, then there wasn't.  And tent-giving away guy wept.  Not all of the tents and sleeping bags were sold for drugs.  Some of them were just sold for cash.  There were better things they needed then a tent or sleeping bag.  The homeless are pretty resourceful.  If they want a sleeping bag, they can get one.  The issue here is the difference between what we think they need versus what they think they need.  It is some sort of projection to transfer our needs onto someone else.

Keith told me story of a rich person in town who decided he wanted to buy every child in the East Gate housing project a new bicycle, which apparently, STEP agreed to do at the time (though I think they have since learned).  So, every kid got a brand new bike.  Rich guy was proud and felt good.  Kids were on bikes everywhere for a week.  Gradually, less and less kids were seen on bikes.  Trash cans became full of bike parts.  Within weeks, no bikes.  Not sure if rich guy hung around long enough to see and weep. 

I am certain that some of the handmade beds we built and gave away were sold.  I could tell you some wild stories about some of them.  We too were naive.  We wanted to be the kind of people that gave away beds to poor kids, just like the rich guy wanted to be the kind of person who gives every kid in a project a new bike, just like the tent/sleeping back guy wanted to be the kind of person who gives away tents and sleeping bags.  Good intentions, they make good paving stones.  We got something.  We accessed compassion within ourselves.  That compassion motivated us to put in lots of money and work.  In terms of helping, though, we missed the mark.  They knew we missed the mark.  They see lots of this.  We train them. 

I hope the rich guy and the tent/sleeping bag giver guy are still in the game.  Perhaps we can meet and swap stories around my fire pit after building some beds.  We could talk about what we learned.  When you do something that radical, things happen, maybe not what we expect, but they do happen.  And what does happen does a number on our attitude.  It can either further entrench us in our stereotype and drive us from the game, or we can confront the experience head on and examine our own stupidity and self-interest.  The later is a great place to start.  Feedback is a key mechanism for change.  The tent/sleeping bag guy got help from God through a crack dealer.  He saw the wrongness of the situation and cared enough about what tent man was doing to give him feedback.  A little prayer of examen and prayer of consciousness would be a dynamite thing to do after getting that feedback.  It would be transformative.

So, what do you think rich guy and tent guy?  If you are still in the game, come hang out with me and let's learn together how to love exceptionally.  Let's go give things away again, only this time, lets be responsive to the feedback we obtained.  Let's go find out what they need that would help, they let's give it to them.  Then let's come back my fire pit and process it together.