Caring

A teen-aged boy says to his dad, "John's older brother is home from college and he's throwing a big party for the guys.  Can I go?"  His dad replies, "I don't care."

A young girl asks her mother, "Mom, can I go across the street and play with Mary?"  Her mom replies. "I don't care."

Have you heard similar conversations?  I sure have.  What message does this send?  What grows from this seed that's planted?

I absolutely despise the phrase "I don't care".  What do you mean you don't care?  What you're telling that little girl is "What you do doesn't matter to me."  What you're telling that teen-aged boy is "I don't care what happens to you."  What you're saying is "You are not important to me."  Is this the message that we want to give our children?  Really?  You don't matter to me?

If they've heard it once, the chances are that they've heard it many more times.  You learn things through repetition.  Remember how you learned the alphabet as a child?  It was through repetition.  Remember how you learned the multiplication tables?  It was through repetition.  How will a child learn that he's not valued?  By hearing "I don't care" repeatedly.

What is sad is that I see this carried into adulthood.  The seed that was planted in the child has grown into a weed in the adult's life.  They've become apathetic.  They don't care.  They don't take pride in their work.  They don't take pride in their relationships.  Ultimately, they have no pride in themselves.

Do you see people like this around you?  How about the co-worker that just doesn't get the job done right?  There's always some loose ends that someone else has to tie up, or the quality of work just falls short of what was required.  What about the friend that does a little dance while back-peddling after being caught in a lie?  Kids that constantly hear "I don't care" turn into adults that don't care.

So how is this changed?

Faithfulness

Tuesday morning.  I was getting ready for another day of challenges at work and an evening of celebrating the completion of a ten week bible study with almost three hundred other people.  I checked my emails one final time before heading off to work and saw an unexpected one.

There was a need for drivers to help take twenty, and possibly even more, kids from one of my church's outreach centers to the movies.  Only two had responded with a commitment to help drive the kids.  It only took an instant for me to respond and to volunteer to help drive the kids to the movies.  I knew in my heart that sacrificing the time of celebration for these kids was the right thing to do.  Throughout the day there were several emails posted but no mention of any more drivers.

At the end of my work day, I went to see my bible study group leader to let him know about what I was doing.  He said he thought that I was making the wrong decision.  He told me that the celebration dinner was just a one time event, but there would be many other opportunities to help the kids.  I thought to myself that this was an immediate need to help and serve, something that we had talked about and experienced in our study.  How could I rationalize a party being more important than helping with these kids?  He finally said that he understood my heart and why I was choosing my decision.

I headed to the outreach center.  On the way there was a voice telling me that I was making the wrong choice, but it was giving me selfish reasons.  You're not going to enjoy a dinner with people that you have shared experiences with over the last ten weeks.  They're going to take a group picture, and you're not going to be in it after being there faithfully each week.  It's the last time that the group will meet, but you're not going to be there, so you can't say that you were at every meeting.  Because of this, I knew I was making the right decision.

I arrived at the center thirty minutes early and just hung around the office.  About fifteen minutes later I stepped outside and noticed there were four adults standing around waiting.  Then more showed up.  It looked like there would be just enough drivers there to take all thirty-two of the children to the movies.  Groups of children were assigned to different adults and they were gathering at the vehicles, but none had been assigned to me.  I thought to myself that I may be able to go to the dinner if there weren't any more kids hiding somewhere.  There weren't and I was not needed after all.

So I jumped into my car, called my bible study leader and let him know that I was on my way and would be a little late.  He was excited to hear the news.  It was 6:20 and the dinner started at 6:30 and I was probably thirty to forty-five minutes away in southern California rush hour traffic.  Between the center and the freeway on-ramp, I hit three red lights.  This was not a good start.

If you know the 55 and 405 freeways in southern California, you now they are horrendous during rush hour.  I was expecting the worst.  I got on the 55 and actually flew down to the 405 interchange.  On the interchange I saw that the 405 was moving pretty well.  The normal back-up was not there.  I continued flying to the off-ramp that I needed and saw that the back-up started just past the off-ramp.  From the off-ramp to the church's entrance there are nine traffic lights.  Every one was green.  Yes, every single one!  The trip only took twenty minutes!

I was stoked and shared the events of the afternoon with the group.

Why did this all happen?  I suspect that there was at least one person that prayed for me to be at the dinner, but it was about my faithfulness and God's faithfulness.  I was faithful in making the right decision to serve the needy.  God was faithful in blessing me for my choice and getting me to the dinner just ten minutes late.  It's about the faithfulness of a loving God who takes care of His faithful.

A faithful man will be richly blessed. - Proverbs 28:20