Seth and I have gone to school together since the good ol' elementary days. We have lived five minutes from one another since I can remember. We both came to Carolina and then somehow both ended up being Young Life leaders at East Chapel Hill. Seth and I were never really in the same group of friends growing up, but I have absolutely loved being on the same team together and growing our friendship as teammates. He has taught me to loosen up and to relax and to just enjoy the fun of everyday life. I cannot imagine leading at East without Seth; I have been inspired by his dedication to coaching Cross Country and Track at the school and by his relationships with his guys. I am so excited that he agreed to write a guest post for my blog. His words are real and his challenge to do something out of love and compassion is one that I want to actually accept.
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| Seth & his wonderful girlfriend, Maggie |
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| Leading at Saranac Lake together in June 2011 |
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| One of my favorite team pictures from the 2011-2012 school year! |
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Philippians 2:4 Do not merely look out for your own personal interests,
but also for the interests of others.
Probably
the most important life lesson I have learned in college is that I am one
experience, one decision, one chromosome away from any number of variant walks
of life. My middle-class heterosexual white maleness is of no result my own. But
because of it, I have not had to experience true pain. I haven’t known what it
is like to be hungry, to be hated and dehumanized, to be abused. And I am
thankful. But at times, man, do I feel guilty.
I had a
conversation with my dad recently, and I told him of this guilt, about how at
times it consumes me. I see people facing different hardships, completely
independent of bad choices or free will. I told him of this homeless kid I met
on Franklin St. earlier in the week. I saw him sitting outside SubWay on my way
out.
“I’ve already had a couple bites of this, but you’re more than welcome to have the rest if you want,” I said, holding the plastic bag containing what was left of a six-inch sub.
“Beats eating out of the trash can,” he looked up at me.
I decided
to sit down with him for a while, I explained to my dad, because everything I
have read and experienced about homelessness has told me that it is the feeling
of being invisible or only semi-human that hurts the most. So, this kid started
sharing his story with me. Raised in the foster care system in Minnesota, he
was abused by his foster parents leading up to their split after a move to
North Carolina. Eventually he moved out on his own with a one of his brothers.
After
losing his job, the two got evicted and at 19 years old, this kid is a
panhandler. Dirt beneath his nails and staining his hands, there is no way a
potential employer would hire him. He described the plight of many of the
homeless in Chapel Hill. He is homeless because he doesn’t have a job and, he
can’t get a job because he is homeless. I
appreciated his openness and left this interaction realizing that the two of us
aren’t that different. I’ve just been lucky enough to have two loving,
financially supportive parents and he hasn’t.
My dad
listened to this story and my musings on suffering and fairness. And he offered
this advice: You can spend your whole life feeling guilty and angry with God or
you can recognize your privileged life and gifts, and do something about it. Although
I have heard similar advice in the past, for some reason, this time it hit me.
So, moving
forward I want to leave those reading this with a challenge. If you’re like me,
don’t stop be empathetic or hurting for the injustices others endure. Let’s go
out and do what we can with what we have been blessed with, not out of guilt,
but out of love and compassion.
Galatians 6:2 Bear one
another’s burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ
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