Perspective

Broken.

I saw a video recently about a nine year old boy who lives in Kupang. He introduced himself and then told the camera that he has to wake up every day at 4:00 AM to fish because he has to pay his tuition for school. Later on in the video, his teacher says that her students cannot stay awake because they don’t get enough food to eat if they don’t sell enough fish, and if they do get to eat, the food is not nutritious.
Rebuked.

I was lying on my bed recently feeling really depressed about the state of my life. How I feel like I have accomplished nothing really significant since I graduated four years ago. I had been cleaning my room, cleaning out my closet of clothing that is perfectly good, but that I’m tired of. And then a friend reminded me gently through BBM that there are others less fortunate with highly-felt needs. ‘Why don’t you give it to the cleaners at school?’ she said. ‘If you really want a ministry to them…’

I asked some colleagues yesterday how much money the cleaners make on average per month. “One hundred,” one said. “Or a little more than one hundred US dollars per month – one million rupiah, or 1.2.”

Perspective.

As I was thinking about our cleaners and how much is asked of them at school – to do the dirty work, of cleaning up little ones who soil themselves during their lessons, to wash the dishes after the students have eaten at recess… I realized that it takes them an entire year to earn what I do in less than one month.

And I think it’s okay to slack off, to be unorganized, to do a mediocre job at work because there are “so many things to do”…

How dare you…

We taught the kindies this week about “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or drink, or what you will wear… for the pagans worry about those things…” How much I have lived for my stomach and what to eat, materialistically bought something miscellaneous because I was sad… how much have I spent on drinks at Starbucks, or in general, and not realized that what I pay for one drink mindlessly is the income per day for so many cleaners and others in the service sector.

It so happened (and by that, I mean it was actually God’s sovereignty) that we taught that lesson this week. I wanted to rebuke my cute, rich students – but really, the one who needed the rebuke was me.

We sang this song in CB (chapel) this week:

Jangan kamu kuatir
Burung di udara Dia plihara
Jangan kamu kuatir
Bunga di padang Dia hiasi
Jangan kamu kuatir
Apa yang kau makan, minum, pakai
Jangan kamu kuatir
Bapa di surga memlihara

Don’t worry
He keeps the birds of the air
Don’t worry
He clothes the flowers of the field
Don’t worry
About what you eat, drink, or wear
Don’t worry
God in heaven cares.

Father, thank you for convicting me by the Holy Spirit about the hard facts today. I think I am a better steward of my time, treasure, and talent than I actually am. Please…help me not to just know the facts but to have my eyes opened up to how I can do something in this place where you have put me sovereignly, where there are so many accutely-felt needs, physical and spiritual.