A Revolution for the Young, Too: Imagine...

One of my favorite things about the Dirty Roots Revolution is how it has managed to bring together such a wide variety of people. Of course, that IS one of the main points of the whole thing :-)

People are energized when they feel called to come together and work together on things. We have people from different backgrounds. Different denominations (and non-believers). Different races. Different economic situations. Different hometowns. Different skills. Different interests. People with different motivators for being involved. Etc.

One of my favorite “differences” is in age. EVERYONE can be involved in the Dirty Roots Revolution.

Little kids join us on care pack building day and they draw and color note cards to put in the care packs, which are delivered to the homeless. The kids love doing that! They feel involved. Because they ARE involved. And that’s not a “let’s find something for the kids to keep busy with so they feel like they’re helping” kind of involved. Those cards are important. Even the most hardened, streetwise, weary, and grizzled homeless person softens and smiles when they look at those sloppy cards, obviously drawn by a child with a genuine desire to be involved, help out, and do good.

College students are involved. They don’t have money. Some don’t have a car. They don’t have resources. BUT – they are equipped with what I feel is one of the very most important things on the entire planet - the desire to (and belief that they can) change the world! The college students are the bulk of our Saturday morning Homeless Outreach “army”. They may not be able to “give”, but they can “go”. And they’re not afraid to get their hands dirty.

We have young families who go on the Homeless Outreach trips. Sometimes it’s just husbands and wives. We’re planning a Halloween event, where kids are invited to participate in a costume parade for the homeless to enjoy.

The elderly often support us financially. Many are not able to go to St. Louis, but they often have funds, which enable us to do what we do.

One retired teacher tells us she can’t do much financially and isn’t able to go to St. Louis, but she likes to sew. So she crochets warm hats all year long and we deliver them to the homeless when it gets cold.
She also gives her cooking talents and her time in helping with meals we’ve held. Other ladies take the day off work to prepare and help with these same meals.

Everyone has something to give. And it all matters.

One of the coolest things about having little kids involved is to see how this impacts them.

The first time we saw it happen was after I shared the Dirty Roots message for the first time, from the pulpit, at the First Christian Church. This was part of what initiated the whole movement. I talked a lot about the R-word: “Revolution”.

The college students I work with told me that throughout the next week, the kids they worked with at church and in small groups, asked a lot about what I meant by Revolution. What was one? What did it mean? How could we do one? Why do we need to?

Several months later, the DRR had incorporated as a non-profit organization and was doing weekly Homeless Outreach trips. We had met and befriended the family of a beautiful three-year old girl named Bubbles. Everyone’s heart was captured by her story. We told everyone we could. They melted.

One day, Chris, one of our board members who works at a local church day care, said that the mother of one of his day care kids told him that her daughter was continually talking about Bubbles. “Who is Bubbles? We’ve been continually praying for Bubbles!” As I understand it, this wasn’t necessarily a “praying family”. But they were praying for Bubbles, because their daughter insisted.

Chris filled the mom in on who Bubbles was and then investigated the situation. He found out that one of the day care classes at the church had a picture of Bubbles taped above their classroom sink. And the kids and teachers prayed for her every single day.

The teacher started it. The kids took it home. Who knows where it’s gone since then?

The other day I got a note from a mom who has been involved in our Homeless Outreach care pack build days. Her son had to write sentences using his spelling words. Here’s what he wrote:
Some people are HOMELESS. That means they have no HOME. You should give them CHANCES and be CAREFUL. They very RARELY have money. They are LIKELY to want some. They are HOPEFUL. Please give them PRICELESS gifts. Some are LONELY. They are LOVELY.

Mom said she was really proud :-)

And I, for one, am really encouraged.

I’m encouraged to see a mix of people – and a mix of ages – in all things connected to the Dirty Roots Revolution.

I’m encouraged that the older folks who have wisdom and experience are on board with this “crazy” scheme to change the world.

I’m encouraged that young people are being taught that changing the world isn’t crazy. It is possible. It is something that should be encouraged. It is something they can do!

It’s something WE can do. Together.

Imagine what could happen if we raise up a generation of children who want to make a difference and believe it’s possible. Imagine what could happen if they are equipped with that from the beginning and have that belief set already in place when they’re college age and the “change the world” mindset, which most college students and young adults have, kicks in. Imagine what could happen if they don’t lose that as “real life” sets in.

Imagine what could happen if those of us who caught onto this later in life enable these young dreamers to continue being crazy enough to care and crazy enough to try. Imagine what could happen if a whole generation goes their entire life, secure in the knowledge (and I say knowledge because it’s not a belief…beliefs can be wrong…knowledge is truth) that this is the way it SHOULD be. The way it CAN be. The way it WILL be.

Imagine what could happen.

Bring the HUMANITY Back

Chris, one of our board members, and I have been talking a lot lately about the homeless people we serve “not feeling human”.

This morning I spoke at the conclusion of Greenville College’s “Shak-A-Thon”, which is an event where students go “homeless” for about 36 hours, fasting along the way. This was a cold, wet two-day period for these kids to do this. Some ducked into basements to sleep somewhere dry – some toughed it out.

As we wrapped up the event, we asked them to share their experiences.

Students were encouraged to panhandle for donations, which would be used to benefit the Dirty Roots Revolution.

A group of students went to IGA to ask for money by the door. Their spokesman was impacted by peoples’ facial expressions and body language as they approached the door, knowing these “beggars” were going to ask for money.

One young man talked about how people walked a wide path around him to avoid walking near him as he sat on Scott field. These were people who knew him from class! They knew he wasn’t truly homeless. But his appearance and very presence made them feel uncomfortable.

I told them this is how our homeless friends in St. Louis feel every single day. When the GC students were sad and downhearted at these experiences, they knew that within hours, they’d go back to their warm dorm, shower, computer, and food. Our homeless friends stay where they are. They have those experiences every day.

And as sad as ONE experience made the GC students feel – multiply the number of experiences by infinity and you’ll have infinite more sadness, felt by the victim.

I say victims because they are. Victims of facial expressions and body language. Victims of people walking across the street to avoid them. The dictionary defines victim as “a person who suffers from a destructive or injurious action or agency”. These destructive behaviors – scowling, ignoring, avoiding – are voluntarily done by us TO the homeless people in question. They may make bad decisions. They may do things you don’t agree with. But, in this case, they ARE victims.

Jesus never put anyone through a “destructive or injurious action”. Even if they were doing bad things.

My original point, though, is that these experiences – when felt innumerable times – “de-humanize” people. As Chris and I have been saying lately: They don’t feel human anymore.

One of my great heroes, the punk rock prophet Joe Strummer, has a great quote that speaks to this:
“People can change anything they want to. And that means everything in the world. People are running about following their little tracks – I am one of them. But we’ve all got to stop following our own little mouse trail. People can do anything. This is something that I’m beginning to learn. People are out there doing bad things to each other. It’s because they’re being dehumanized. It’s time to take the humanity back into the center of the ring and follow that for a time. Greed ain’t going anywhere. They should have that in a big billboard across Times Square. Without people you’re nothing.”

People are doing bad things to each other because they’re being dehumanized.

Twice in the last three weeks I’ve seen news stories about women who were attacked – one was an elderly lady who was car jacked, the other a middle aged woman who was working at a check-cashing store and was robbed. They cried and prayed. And their softness impacted their would-be assailants. They talked with these men who were threatening them. They prayed. In one case the man thanked the little old lady and kissed her cheek before walking away. In the other case, the man emptied the bullets from his gun and left them with the lady. He took $20 but later turned himself in.

Those ladies HUMANIZED those men. The men were desperate. They had nowhere to turn and no one to turn to. No one to talk to. No one to make them feel human. To tell them that they have value.

Every life has value. Every single one. Homeless people and rich people. Teetotalers and drunks. Robbers and victims. Highly-educated people and those without education. Every life matters.

We are not called to judge – we are called to love. To show Christ.

To humanize people.

If we do what Joe Strummer suggests…”bring the humanity back to the center of the ring”, I think things will happen.

We’ll see the importance of these situations. We’ll have faces to go with “issues”. And that will motivate us.

Americans are good at responding to crises. Katrina. The tsunami. 9-11. We responded right away. And in force. With money. With supplies. Prayers. Volunteer time. Work. Missions trips.

Yet people are hungry, homeless, uneducated. Those aren’t “crises”. Well, they are, but they don’t get immediate and huge attention. We hear about them continually, but we get used to it. Katrina was immediate. The need was immediate. The end was in sight. “If we get them some money, food, and shelter, they’ll be OK. It won’t take forever.”

There is no end in sight for homelessness and poverty and hunger. We’re discouraged from throwing all of our resources and effort into that situation. We don’t know how long it’ll last.

Come with us on Saturday and meet Brad, a beautiful three-year old homeless boy with developmental issues and one of the most amazing smiles on the planet….Then I’ll bet it’s a crisis for you.

It changes you.

There’s a crisis going on. There are a lot of them, actually.

But there are a lot of us, too. Lots of people claim the name “Christian”.

Still more claim to want the world to be a better place.

We can all make an impact. We can all make a difference. I don’t believe God, in His infinite wisdom, put a certain number of us down here and then made sure that the troubles outnumbered and outweighed us.

Maybe if we each just did what we could. Used what resources we had. Took advantage of each unique opportunity that presents itself to us. Maybe then, we’d cover it all.

Maybe.

I dunno.

But I do know, without a single doubt, that everything you do matters. Every single, tiny, insignificant thing. Every big thing, too. (But there are more little ones than big)

And I know every single life matters. Every. One.

Let’s make a difference.