Sunset

I've found myself spending the evenings this summer sitting out on the back porch enjoying the beauty in the serenity of the suset. I have found that as I approach a new day I am instantly awaiting my time alone expeiencing the peace that the sunset brings upon a working city. The sunset represents not just a period of time, or a cycle of nature, but establishes a days end bringing a feeling of peace upon the world. I feel as though time slows in the sun's appraoch to set in the day's sky. This immediate feeling experienced day to day instills within me the excitement to not only live, but enjoy the creation that God has painted into the world. God communicates with us through his creation. I believe that if we take the time to listen and watch allowing the world to slow its pace, we can have the ability to experience a piece of God's creation waiting to be heard. Just as the sunset speaks serenity into a world that has been running rampant in the chaos of the day, I know that God has many other secret beauties in which he communicates his nature and beauty to mankind.

Discipline

Today began my first day of summer, and a this I had the privilege of enjoying a cup of tea while reading "The Road Less Traveled" by Scott Peck, enjoying the comfort of my home. In the first chapter of his book Peck expresses the idea that a person that has learned to disipline him or herself through a healthy process will prove to show a healthy mental stability. The introductory sentence to this famous work of Peck is, "Life is difficult". In this statement Peck concludes that once we begin to accept that life is difficult it will allow us to further discipline ourselves into growing into a mentally healthy state of life. With life being difficult as human beings we naturally will be subjected to a myriad of suffering throughout the entirity of our lives. Some chose to ignore this suffering by avoiding even the thought of it, while the healthy way as Peck agrees is to embrace the suffering and deal with the problems that continually face our lives. This act of disciplining our minds to not avoid suffering will allow us to develop and grow psychologically and spiritually. The more we begin to avoid suffering we will further hinder our growth remaining stagnant in a state of unknowing ourselves. Through suffering is where we begin to understand and produce a healthy psychology.

Peck went on to explain that a child learns a form of discipine by the age of 10 through a proper parental guidance. A child should be taught to discipline him or herself in the simple act of doing homework before watching television. This diciplinary process taken on by parents will show trhough a child when there are no parental figures around, he or she will know that it is important to get the hard work done first so that they can enjoy the leisure time. This process bleeds into other realities as well. Take a child eating a cupcake or whatever food it may be for example. A child that has been disciplined to delay gratification will save the better half for the end, such as saving the frosting for the last few bites. As this diciplinary process correlates across many dimensions, the dicipline of delaying gratification will prove to promote a healthy developed mind in all categories including work ethic. A child that has not properly been discplined to delay gratification is the child that procrastinates until being completely stressed out. For example a patient Peck described was one who enjoyed herself at work for the first hour while leaving the next 6 hours to be subject to stress. If this patient simply disciplined herself to get the work done first, then the remaining time in the office will prove to not be so stressfull, but more often than not enjoyable.

Broken

Today I had the enjoyment of spending some time with my brother and a few guys on the floor driving around running some errands. It was an enjoyable afternoon living the carefree lifestyle of a college student. While we were out we stopped by the bank for Jon to turn in a paycheck, and as he was doing so I noticed a few kids, a girl about the age of 12 and her younger brother about the age of 6. She was holding a sign up asking for food because they were hungry and had nothing to eat. This scene quickly struck me, and to be honest I didn't know how to interpret the situation at first. We are told that parents use their kids to get money, so that they can spend the money for themselves on drugs, alcohol or whatever addiction it is they need to fulfill. This understanding of the situation didn't satisfy my heart as I began to look at the young girls face in complete humility holding up a sign pleading for food. Is it possible to be human and to still walk by these two young children simply asking for food. I had made my decision. There was no possible way that I was going to walk away not knowing if these kids were to ever recieve food from anyone. In fact, I think God made it very clear to me that I was to act.
I approached them asking them if they would like me to walk them over to the McDonalds across the street to buy them some food, and the young girl quickly responded by knodding her head. As we began walking over to McDonalds I continued to talk to them trying to get to know them as best as I could before just departing from them. However, I immediately found out that they didn't speak much English. Two young kids without the ability to commmunicate in the English language. This must have been an intimidating lifestyle for them to be living in, pleading for money from people that they can hardly even communicate with, and in this case could probably hardly trust. One thing I noticed was that the young girl was definately hesitant to be near me as we were walking over to the McDonalds. She feared me in a way that I couldn't control except to be genuine with her. I hope that in that moment that I spent with them she felt a sense of security that she had never felt before. I asked them their names: the girl responded in a mumble, so I didn't quite catch her name, however i did catch the boys name, his name was Christian. I wanted so badly to be able to communicate with these kids on a more deeper level, but unfortuantely I felt that the language barrier threw up a wall that couldn't be torn down. I hated that! However, I did get to watch their actions and the way they interacted with me and each other. As we went into the McDonalds the boy immediately ran to the happy meal display of all the toys. This was almost a breaking point for me. I realized at that point that this young boy probably hasn't had many toys that he has possesed to be his own. This grief was quickly relieved by a sense of joy knowing that I could bless this young boy in a way that he hadn;t expected. Not only would he get food to eat, but he would also get one of those happy meal toys. I than made it to the register and the girl told me she would like a number one and I told her I was going to buy her brother a happy meal. I than waited with them for the food and after I had been able to get the food and give it to them I departed saying bye, and hoping and praying with all my heart that these two kids would find something that would bring them out of this hellish life that they are living right now. I have no idea what all that entails, but everything within me breaks when I imagine the two of them out on their own, or with their family roaming the streets. This is not such a beautiful world in which we live when a young boy a of six and a young girl of 12 have to beg for a meal. I find disgust in myself and all of humanity.
One comment later significant upset me as we continued in the car. As i entered the car I was on the brink of tears knowing that i was leaving these kids to walk back to their hellish lives as I proceeded to endulge in great pleasures. As we continued drive one of the guys in the car made a comment as we drove by another Mcdonalds near a bank. He made the comment, "wouldn't it be funny if their were another teo homeless kids outside of that bank". Everything within me wanted to explode in anger at the ignorant statment that had just been made, but God quickly calmed my spirit reasurring me of its ignorance. My heart broke today. To be honest I don't even understand how i can continue to live each and everyday somehow not even thinking about the many kids that live in such conditions, and even far worse. Knowing my ignorance disgusts me. I pray that I can begin to see the world as Christ sees it, and the thoughts that come through my mind are continually that of Christ's. These people are worthing of our attention and care.