Obvious question when meeting someone from The Democratic Republic of the Congo, second largest country in all of Africa, sleeping homeless on the streets of Tijuana, is why?
Average annual income in the Congo, a nation of over 77 million people, is just $231. That’s about .63 cents a day. How long does it take you to spend $231? How much is your house, car, rent payment per month?
How much did you spend on Starbucks last month?
Would you leave your home country for the promise of a better financial future for your family? Take outlandish risk and make insane sacrifices? They have.
Average life expectancy for an infant born in the Congo today is just 49 years. Every African woman in our line, as far as I could tell, appeared to be pregnant. Within them they held the hope and dream of every mother’s future. What would you sacrifice to add years to the life of your child?
Average life expectancy of a woman in Mexico? 79 years. In California? 83 years. What mother wouldn’t do whatever they could, take whatever risk necessary to add 30 years to the life of their child?
I’ve personally shared in the heartbreak of families with adult children, fighting a terminal disease they knew would kill them, still bankrupt themselves to add as many days possible to what little time was left. We honor them for their love and hope we would do the same.
We ignore mother’s sleeping on the street’s of Tijuana, simply fighting for the life of their child. More tragic still, we judge them. We celebrate the pioneers in our past – whether they sailed across an ocean, waded a river or fought for the nation of their birth. We judge mom’s sleeping on the sidewalk, running from a nation that promised a short life of poverty, to a nation they see as ripe with promise, hope and most importantly, so many more years of life.
So many Bible verses I could recite here – literally more than I’m willing to count – but among my favorites is this simple admonition:
“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” James 4:17
Growing up in a world where it seems that sin is defined by a long list of rules, it’s easy to overlook that maybe what God was trying to do with all these words we battle with is to get us to a) open our eyes, b) open our hearts, c) step away from lives of excess while so many go without.
Or more aptly put – to see the good we ought to do, and do it.
Spiritual development doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process. It begins when we open our eyes in love and our hands in thanksgiving. We’ve been blessed to be a blessing. This simple thought transformation can change your life, heart, family and future. Changed mine.
Living without regrets.