Over the past year I have had the chance to support the Wounded Warriors charity for our United States veterans. The closer you get to the lives and circumstances of some of these men and woman, the more compelled you feel to reach out and support the Wounded Warrior ministry.
My wife and daughter both have a masters degree in elementary education, and have dedicated part of their professional lives to teaching in elementary schools in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Tennessee. I have seen first hand the plight of our teachers and the gigantic challenges they face each day in front of 25-30 first and second graders who are eager to learn, but may not have eaten that morning, or may have been beaten or disparaged or neglected at home, or who may not even speak English all that well. These teachers stand before their students with big hearts and the grandest of intentions, but are paid pennies on the dollar of their actual value to our society and our children. And they are asked to fill out forms and paperwork and document how many photocopies they are making each day that it’s a wonder any students actually learn anything from day to day.
Recently, I was exposed to the community of men and women who are or who have been incarcerated and are facing a future with the deck stacked against them as they work to integrate back into a society that typically looks down at them, and makes it hard for them to get a job or even get an apartment because of their label as an "ex-con".
Recently, I was the keynote speaker for a prison ministry, and I only hope that my remarks that morning inspired and encouraged the audience half as much as I was inspired by the testimonies and the stories from the men and women who were there from correctional institutions in North Carolina. I cried to hear worship songs played from the heart by a band of inmates, and just came undone when I heard the choir of inmates sing the refrain from an old negro spiritual "I am free, alleluia, I am free…. Until you have been in bondage, you don’t know what it’s like to be free."
After I left that breakfast of 300 people, I was struck by the fact that nearly every person in attendance had a personal connection with the ministry, either having been incarcerated or had a family member that was in jail. And for every person there, it was that personal experience that inspired them to attend, support and contribute to a cause that meant so much in their life.
Driving home, I realized how true that is for all of us. I have been sending out emails and making personal requests for my friends and family to donate money to the Leukemia and Lymphoma society to help find a cure for and help give patients better care from blood cancer. And why do I do that? Because I have blood cancer, and obviously a cure means a lot to me and my 6 children and wonderful wife!
And there are so many important causes in our world that need our help, support, financial commitment, and prayer. I have friends with Crohn's disease, others who have children with autism or other mental handicaps, still others with various kinds of cancer that has devastated their life or family. And there are unthinkable needs in the area of poverty, starvation, sex trafficking, addiction and dozens of other human issues that need our help locally and around the world.
Individually, I realize that we can’t possibly help ALL of these causes in our lifetime, but I guess my realization is that perhaps we are each touched by some of these challenges in our lives so that we will be drawn into the battle that each one represents. Drawn into action to support families and patients of veterans, teachers or ex-offenders because they need our help.
What social need is in your life that calls you to lend your hand, to point your time, talent and treasure toward "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?”
And when you realize where that is, I hope and pray you will direct your energy and life force to improving someone else’s life. That is part of our responsibility as a human being I think.
Amen and amen.