A note on life from the brother of Jesus (Part 2)

As noted recently, from time to time over the next several weeks on this site I intend to "dig into" the letter that James, the brother of Jesus, wrote to first century Christians. 

Thought to be among the earliest, extant Christian writings, the brief letter addresses the challenges facing Jewish believers located primarily in the area around Jerusalem.  Clearly, these early devotees of Jesus experienced suffering, systemic economic oppression and some forms of persecution--possibly because of their opinions about the identity of Jesus and certainly due to the social and status implications of those strongly held opinions and life perspectives.

________________________________________

 

James 1:5-8 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV):

⁵ If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. ⁶ But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; ^{7, 8} for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord.

Everyone needs "wisdom" for the journey taken through life. 

This is especially true for those who suffer. 

Wisdom turns out to be even more essential for those who suffer unfairly. 

If you read ahead in the letter of James (cheating like this is encouraged!), you'll see that the readers of this letter endured painful injustices, primarily perpetrated by the minority rich against the majority poor in the same communities.  The rich and powerful exerted their influence in such a way that suffering and unfair economic practices/realities resulted.  James possesses enough wisdom himself to realize just how important wisdom, sometimes "other worldly" wisdom really can be. 

Knowledge coupled with experience and common sense about action forms the heart of wisdom.  Among suffering poor, few commodities are as important as robust, time-tested wisdom.  James counsels his readers that this sort of wisdom comes from God and is sustained by faith or trust. 

James urges his readers to seek this special, practical wisdom from God. This is true implicitly for these early readers who considered God the source of all wisdom and truth.  The Hebrew conception of wisdom involved enlightenment flowing from truth that could be counted on to define right actions, even under pressure, when facing grave difficulty.  God is in the business of dispensing wisdom to genuine seekers freely, without any sense of imposition or bother whatsoever.

People shackled by poverty need wisdom to negotiate a life with numerous imposed limits.  Poor folks need extra measures of insight, good judgment and decision making strategies to make it through a life lived at the margins of society.  Sourcing wisdom, James maintains, means turning to God for "other-worldly" wisdom.

The only requirement for receiving the wisdom that God freely gives is faith.  But a special sort of faith:  faith that never doubts.

Ouch! 

"Faith that never doubts" seems a tall order. 

But consider, a doubting faith in a context of trouble, suffering and oppression soon feels like being caught in a storm at sea.  Doubt creates a storm in the soul and spirit.  Doubt throws a person off, around, back, up and down!  Doubt in the face of great stress can seem like a gale force wind that only adds more difficulty, danger and risk to already confusing dilemmas and circumstances. 

The fact is, in the midst of trouble--trouble that reaches deep down into a person's life to spread darkness and despair, trouble that makes a wreck out of life--we don't need more instability.  There is enough of that in the present circumstances we face! 

Doubters cannot gain stability in the midst of trial.

Beyond this, the harsh reality is that doubters don't receive any help or support from God.  Strong statement.  Why is this true?

Doubt forces any thought of God to the edges of a life.  God won't force wisdom on anyone.  For God and for God's wisdom to arrive in a troubled life, God must be placed at the center, not along the edges.

Doubt causes suffering people to lose focus.  When focus departs, vision can be bifurcated and footing is lost in the storm.  Instability piles on top of fear and all is lost.

Over the next few installments of this reflection I intend to point out how many of my extremely poor friends embrace the counsel of James.  Their lives, like the lives of those who first read these words from the brother of Jesus, are defined by a "surround" of poverty and oppression.  Those who keep the faith, those who battle on, inspire me because I've noticed they never, ever, ever doubt as they seek the wisdom they need to survive in the harshness of deep, unforgiving poverty. 

The faith I observe among the poor and the marginalized on the streets of Dallas, Texas inspires a hopefulness about what good thing is just ahead.  The poor who possess faith always seem to expect better of the future. 

Where doubt has a way of overwhelming me with instability, undoubting faith sustains them.
 



Highland Park UMC and CitySquare

News of the creative, innovative partnership we've just forged between CitySquare and Highland Park United Methodist Church has spread everywhere in Dallas, it seems. 

Everywhere I go, people ask me about the partnership.  And, I'm more than happy to talk about it!

Paul Rasmussen, Senior Minister at HPUMC, has become a trusted friend and ally to me.  I'm grateful for the creative space that Paul forms everywhere he goes!  And, needless to say, everyone at CitySquare is encouraged by the new connection we enjoy with HPUMC!

Here are some of the reports (forgive the redundancy!):

·         White Rock/ East Dallas Neighbors Go

·         BubbleLife:

o   Park Cities

o   Lakewood

o   Preston Hollow

o   Uptown

·         KRLD Radio Interview with Mitch Carr

·         The Dallas Morning News

·         My Sweet Charity

Racial bias and me

Interested in grappling with implicit bias in your own attitudes about race?

Here's an interesting site developed at Harvard University to get you started.

Let me know how you come out!

Love defined by action

Truly Growing

If we truly are growing in love with our neighbors who are suffering at the hands of unjust systems—if that love is deep enough and authentic enough—then finding ourselves opposing those unjust systems will follow as naturally as the morning follows the night…. I don’t think we go out looking for oppressive systems to confront, like Don Quixote went out looking for windmills to attack. Our doing must flow naturally out of our being. Our doing for justice must flow naturally out of our being in love with those for whom there is no justice.

K. Killian Noe
Source: Finding Our Way Home

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

Poverty and children

87 Things Only Poor Kids Know

By Tiffany Willis on May 29, 2014

 

Kids living in poverty don’t have a lot of money — or options. But poor kids are survivors, and the life lessons they learn are heartbreaking but often invaluable. 

Here are some things that poor children know.

1. A fingernail file can be used to file a jagged edge if a tooth breaks.
2. We go to the doctor when we’re sick, but mom doesn’t.
3. We have to move a lot because sometimes we can’t afford the rent.
4. I don’t always tell my mom when I need school supplies. I can tell it makes her nervous.
5. Having to print something for school gives me anxiety. Our printer doesn’t always have ink. It’s easier for me to just get a bad grade on the project than admit to the teacher I can’t afford to print.
6. Ditto homework that requires the internet. Sometimes we have it, sometimes we don’t. People say “use the library” but there’s not always gas money to get there and they are only open one evening a week.
7. God doesn’t hear my prayers.
8. The only time I’ve ever been to a store to buy new clothes is when my aunt took me. The dressing rooms were foreign to me.
9. I learned how to cook ramen noodles when I was six years old. I was hungry when I got home from school and mom wasn’t ever there to cook because she was working.
10. Healthy snacks are expensive. Ramen noodles are cheap.
11. My grandmother criticizes my mom for not feeding us more healthy food. What she doesn’t understand is that healthy food usually costs a lot more.
12. We can never get the chicken nuggets at McDonald’s. We have to order from the dollar menu that mom calls garbage food.
13. Every day when I get off the bus, I’m scared until I get inside the house. Mom’s at work when I get home.
14. I know I’d be a really good football player, but we’ve never been able to afford for me to play.
15. When I go somewhere where there’s a piano, I love to try to play. I know I’d be really good but we’ll never be able to afford a piano or lessons.
16. I don’t wear different clothes every day.
17. We have to buy all white socks because if one gets lost or torn up, it may be a while before we buy more.
18. We are really good at cleaning our house with stuff that most people don’t use to clean, like bleach and vinegar.
19. I needed colored pencils for a project once. My teacher told me that if I didn’t bring them, I wouldn’t be able to do my project and I’d get a zero. I told the teacher I didn’t have any and she told me I’d better figure it out. On the way to school, my mom went into the grocery store. I was confused because she told me she didn’t have money. When she came out, she had the pencils but they were in  her purse, not in a sack. I think she stole them. She was crying.
20. Mom keeps her toothbrush in her bedroom so that it doesn’t accidentally brush up against ours in the bathroom. Germs and she can’t afford to get sick and miss work or go to the doctor.
21. I have no idea what other kids are talking about when they’re talking about the latest TV shows. We’ve never had cable.
22. I sometimes dread the summer and weekends because at school, I eat two meals a day.
23. I’ve never tasted any of the cool cereals that my friends talk about.
24. When I get money from relatives for my birthday or Christmas, I use it to buy things I don’t want to ask mom for, like hair products and underwear.
25. My hair nearly always get too long between haircuts. I got sent home from school once because of it. Mom cut it herself.
26. Other kids make fun of my clothes.
27. I know what it’s like to be really cold in the wintertime.
28. We wear our jackets and gloves in the house in the winter.
29. When our dryer broke, we had to hang our clothes to dry. It took all weekend for my jeans to dry in the wintertime.
30. Christmas is about things we need, not things we want.
31. We can never buy cool clothes “just cuz.” They always have to be things that have a dual purpose. We can wear them to school, church, or whatever.
32. I’ve never been to summer camp. Even if we could afford to go, I’d be embarrassed about my old underwear.
33. I did go to summer camp. I was the only kid who could never buy snacks from the canteen.
34. I got my first job babysitting when I was 14. I couldn’t spend the money. We needed it for bills.
35. Sometimes we have to put stuff back in the checkout line because we don’t have enough money. The cereal always gets put back first.
36. Cashing a check is hard if you don’t have a checking account. You have to pay to cash it.
37. I’m an expert on what can and can’t be bought with SNAP and WIC.
38. One Christmas, we had no money so we went to the Dollar Tree where everything is a dollar Mom gave us each $5 and told us to go shopping for each other. It was the weirdest and funnest Christmas ever.
39. Sometimes we have to use dish liquid in the washing machine. It works if you only use a small squirt.
40. Sometimes we get sick and go to the doctor. He gives us an antibiotic and tell us to start it, but if he calls to say that our strep test came back negative, we can stop taking it. When this happens, Mom keeps that medicine so that she can take it if she has an emergency and gets sick.
41. Sometimes we want to pack cool lunches like some other kids do, but it’s cheaper to eat the school cafeteria food. Mom says the food’s not healthy, but we get free lunches so that’s what we eat. Mom gives us money every day so that we can buy an extra milk at school. It’s cheaper than if we bought it at the grocery store.
42. Sometimes we don’t eat if there’s a mean kid in the line. We don’t want them to know we’re getting free lunch. They’ll make fun of us forever.
43. Duct tape can fix almost anything. Mom makes a game out of it. If a window gets a crack in it, she fixes it with duct tape and uses the tape to make cool designs.
44. I sit really quietly when I get an ice cream cone, enjoying every lick.
45. I share a bedroom with my two younger siblings. It’s impossible to find a quiet place to do my homework.
46. I didn’t do as well as I should have in math classes because I couldn’t afford the calculator that was required.
47. I couldn’t be in Boy Scouts because we couldn’t buy the uniforms.
48. I couldn’t be in Girl Scouts because we couldn’t afford the books and patches.
49. You can make a whole meal out of gravy and white bread.
50. White bread is usually cheaper than wheat bread.
51. Spending the night at a friend’s house is awesome. They always have plenty food.
52. Butter and sugar sandwiches are the best.
53. We don’t trust the police. We know they won’t treat us fairly.
54. We eat a lot of: potatoes, beans, and cheap bread.
55. My mom lies about not wanting seconds.
56. I’ve learned that when mom says “do you want the rest of this [food]?”, what she’s saying is “if you don’t want it, then I’ll eat.” I’ve learned to say I’m full, even if I’m not, so that she will eat.
57. Hamburger Helper feels like a gourmet meal.
58. When I got home one day, I let it slip that the other kids went on a field trip and I stayed behind. She asked why I didn’t go and I told her it cost money and I didn’t want to ask. Later, I heard her crying.
59. I’ve had to stay home from school when my little brother was sick because Mom couldn’t miss work.
60. I know what day Frito Lay dumps the expired chips in a dumpster.
61. We can’t always afford to go to the laundromat and we have to wear dirty clothes.
62. A bottle of Febreeze can be used to cover the smell of dirty clothes.
63. When my shoes start to become too small, I get worried.
64. My pants are always too short about two months after we buy them.
65. I know exactly how many miles our car will go after the low fuel light comes on.
66. We take blankets in the car because the car doesn’t have heat.
67. I’ve never had a birthday party.
68. We don’t always get our presents — birthday and Christmas — at the right time.
69. When my mom complained to her sister about not having enough money to raise her kids, her sister told her “you should have closed your legs.”
70. We’ve never been able to take all of the school supplies that we were supposed to have.
71. I’ve never bought a school yearbook or school pictures.
72. I’ve never bought a book at a school book fair.
73. One winter when we ran out of propane and couldn’t buy any for a week, mom made us one huge bed in the floor in the living room. She brought every blanket in the house and we stayed in there all the time staying warm.
74. Our grass gets high sometimes. We don’t have a lawn mower and mom never has enough money to buy one. She usually does have $50 to pay someone to mow the grass but sometimes she has to wait a couple of weeks to get the money.
75. Mom misses my open houses at school and my football games because she doesn’t always have gas. She has a neighbor friend who I can ride with to my games.
76. I’ve never had a new coat. Mom says that we’re lucky that someone always gives us one of their old ones just when we need one.
77. We learned that washing our clothes by hand is a lot of work. Our washer broke and it was two months before we could afford a new one.
78. When we finally got a new washer, Mom bought it at a place where you can rent to own. It costs twice as much to buy things that way. Mom says it’s expensive to be poor.
79. One time Mom had to write a check for the electric bill. She said she knew that she didn’t have the money in the bank, but she had to do it or they would cut off our electricity. She said the bank would pay it. They did, but she had to pay them an extra $30 because of not having enough money in the bank. The electric bill was late and we had to pay the electric company $10 for being late.
80. We’ve never met our doctor. We go to a clinic and a nurse sees us every time.
81. If we go to the grocery store and pay with money, the clerks are nice. When we pay with our food stamp card, the clerks are rude.
82. We know that if we go to college, it’s going to cost us a lot of money because we’ll have to get loans. Poor kids have to pay a lot more for an education.
83. We don’t get to participate in some school activities if they cost money. Even stuff like band costs more money than we can afford.
84. We eat a lot of unhealthy food. Carbs and fats are cheaper than protein.
85. I have a poor friend who lives in the inner city. He’s afraid all the time. Mom says it’s because he hears a lot of gunshots when he’s trying to sleep and during the day. She says that he doesn’t know how to turn off the fear.
86. I’ve never ordered a soda at a restaurant.
87. We never take anything for granted. Whether it’s candy, toys, food, or cool clothes, we know it’s a blessing.

Loving Joy!

Easter Exultet

Shake out your qualms.
Shake up your dreams.
Deepen your roots.
Extend your branches.
Trust deep water
and head for the open,
even if your vision
shipwrecks you.
Quit your addiction
to sneer and complain.
Open a lookout.
Dance on a brink.
Run with your wildfire.
You are closer to glory
leaping an abyss
than upholstering a rut.
Not dawdling.
Not doubting.
Intrepid all the way
Walk toward clarity.
At every crossroad
Be prepared
to bump into wonder.
Only love prevails.
En route to disaster
insist on canticles.
Lift your ineffable
out of the mundane.
Nothing perishes;
nothing survives;
everything transforms!
Honeymoon with Big Joy!

James Broughton
Source: Little Sermons of the Big Joy

Add your thoughts at inward/outward

What Jesus might inspire. . .

Crisis of hope

"The real crisis isn’t one night of young men in the street rioting. It’s something perhaps even more inexcusable — our own complacency at the systematic long-term denial of equal opportunity to people based on their skin color and ZIP code."

 

Nicholas Kristof, "When Baltimore Burned,"

The New York Times, April 29, 2015

A note on life from the brother of Jesus

While the content of this site is informed by my faith, I seldom leap headlong into Bible study here.  There are good reasons for my typical approach.  But, for some time now I've felt compelled to unpack the content of one short section of the New Testament, the letter of James. 

Why James? 

For starters, I consider it one of the least understood portions of the Bible.  For centuries the church both turned to James and, in some notable cases, away from James when grappling with issues of salvation, discipleship and good works.  Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, referred to the short letter as a "right straw epistle," regarding its content as contrary to his the Apostle Paul's theology of salvation by faith and by faith alone apart from works of law.  Luther believed that James did not deserve a place in the canon of scripture because of its undo emphasis on good works.

In the faith tradition of my youth, leaders used James to argue about essential works and acts of faith that were required for any and all who wanted a place in the kingdom of God.  I grew up listening to debates about baptism and other religious actions that were considered essential works and not to be disregarded by any movement toward "faith alone." 

None of this has anything to do with the message James shares with some of the earliest Christian communities. 

James, the brother of Jesus, writes to some of the first disciples who followed his brother.  These communities of early Jewish Christians lived in a Judean social context that shaped what James communicated.  His message focuses on the particular day-to-day social and economic realities of  the immediate context of his readers, as well as the deep Hebrew understanding of justice and equity as essential, required elements in any authentic walk with God. 

James is concerned with the suffering of his community, particularly that pain caused by economic and social injustice at work in the world and in the experience of himself and his readers.  James establishes a clear connection between deep spirituality and a struggle for justice--economic and social. James points out that the struggle for justice occurs even inside the church. 

What will follow is a non-technical narrative interpretation of this important piece of Christian literature written in response to what James and his community observed.

______________________________________________________



James 1:1-4
New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

Salutation

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion: Greetings.

Clearly, James writes as a follower of his very own brother, Jesus.  He positions himself, not as a sibling, but as a "servant" of the Christ.  This is especially significant since he writes to Jewish people ("the twelve tribes"), such as himself, who have chosen to follow Jesus as the promised Messiah.  The image of "dispersion" suggests a scattered reality and an alienated community experiencing discomfort and difficulty, even possibly the homelessness of an alien people in a land of uncertainty.

Faith and Wisdom

² My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; ⁴ and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

The community to which James addresses his remarks knows suffering firsthand.  No doubt some were beginning to suffer due to their new faith/religious alignment.  The fact that James leads with his subject indicates that suffering is a pressing issue for his readers.  Apparently, pain and difficulty have become a part of normal life for these readers.  The pain tested those who experienced it.  No doubt, some were tempted to give up, to turn back, or to be resigned to the systems and the powers responsible for the "trials." 

James reframes suffering by pointing out the benefits  or the positive results of going through hard times, no matter who or what the cause--"trials of any kind."  Suffering should give way only to  joy.  This seems a strange claim, but I expect we've all seen this played out in life again and again.  The joy is rooted in the effect of suffering:  faith is tested, endurance is produced.  When allowed to engage fully, endurance leads to maturity.  Life fills up and is complete or whole.  The bottom line:  this understanding of suffering positions the one who suffers in a place of total abundance where nothing is lacking, even in the press of discrimination and poverty.

How often, working in the inner city, I've witnessed this kind of faith take root and flourish.  The suffering is beyond real for the impoverished.  Still, I've never witnessed such joy, a joy that grows from undeniable endurance, perseverance and character.  The result can be seen in the life of the poorest exhibiting the truth and power of a life that "has it all."  The joy leads to sharing.  The testing leads to amazing strength.  The endurance shocks me whenever I see it. 

Recently, I attended a WorkPaths graduation ceremony.  Eighteen men received certificates of completion in a 13-week, construction trades training program.  So far, nine of these graduates have found jobs.  Here we have very poor men and families, many just out of prison living with a stent in prison on their resumes.  Men who've made mistakes.  Men who've been unfairly treated and brushed aside as useless. 

But as the ceremony progressed, I felt a rallying of spirit and I witnessed spontaneous outbursts of joy and hope.  I saw evidence of endurance and character.  Pressed down, but not defeated.  Oppressed but refusing to give up. 

Injustice creates systems and circumstance filled with unfairness, discrimination, marginalization and despair. 

Faith results in courageous action.

This is where James begins, but it's only the beginning and not nearly the whole story!

Education improvements

This new essay by Nicholas Kristof is so right on, especially in view of the position of the Texas legislature!

How do we manage to get it so wrong? 

Clear evidence of democracy's failure:  the number of people who never vote!

Images from my recent trip to the White House

Recently, in response to an invitation from the White House Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, I traveled to Washington, DC for a 2-day consult on health care and its efficient expansion.  What an opportunity to share "the CitySquare Way."  It was an incredible experience. 

Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD talked to us.  He was most impressive. 

I came away feeling that we are on the right  track, but we must find ways to do more. 

A fundamental premise of the consult was that we possess all the resources we need to address our challenges.  Our problem is that what we have is not aligned nor deployed for maximum impact.  We must work together to be successful. 

Most popular TED Talk of all time!

Christian Values

De-bunking the mythology of homelessness 4

HB 3836--time for action!

Yesterday, HB 3836, which would allow DCCCD to offer a 4 year degree in Early Childhood Education after first giving our higher ed institutional partners the opportunity to collectively work together to solve our substantial teacher gap, was heard by the House Higher Ed Committee yesterday. We are grateful for the strong leadership of our area legislators in authoring/sponsoring this bill (Reps. Giddings, Koop, Anchia, Anderson, Meyer, Alonzo, Johnson, Laubenberg, Rose, and Villalba), as well as the strong testimonies provided by numerous Commit partners including Alan Cohen at Dallas ISD, Stephanie Mace at United Way, Melanie Rubin at Dallas Early Education Alliance and Terry Ford at Lumin.

  We were especially encouraged to hear statements of appreciation and agreement from several committee members on the need for this legislation, including noting the breadth and depth of the local coalition supporting this initiative. A very short video highlighting legislative response to the testimonies and the bill can be accessed via the following link: https://vimeo.com/125843077 We need to encourage the House Higher Ed committee to vote the bill out of committee at their next meeting.

  To make this bill happen, we need all hands on deck to email the House Higher Ed committee members by Monday, April 27th to request that this bill be voted out of committee next week. The session ends in five weeks, so we are up against the clock.

 Sample email text and addresses for the committee members and their chiefs of staff are below. We have to have a hearing on the bill’s Senate companion (SB 1810), sponsored by Senator West, next week. Thank you for your continued support. Yesterday’s hearing was a great encouragement that together we are moving the needle on this critical legislation benefitting our youngest learners in Dallas County.

Sample email: Dear Representatives, I am writing in support of HB 3836, which would allow Dallas Community College to address the severe early childhood teacher shortage in our region by offering a four-year BA degree in early childhood education if local higher education institutions do not first opt to collectively address our severe workforce shortage. Please vote in support of this bill in committee on Wednesday, April 29, so that this critical legislation can be quickly heard on the House floor. We urgently need to expand access to high quality early childhood educator programs in our region.

De-bunking the mythology of homelessness 3

De-bunking the mythology of homelessness 2

De-bunking the mythology of homelessness 1

Mayor Rawlings to share annual report. . .

Poverty's toxic, damaging stress. . .

Overcoming Poverty’s Damage to Learning

By David Bornstein

April 17, 2015 7:00 am 

 campaign: nyt2015_sharetools_mkt_opinion_47K78 -- 271975, creative: nyt2014_sharetools_mktg_opinion_47K78 -- 375123, page: blog.nytimes.com/opinionator/post, targetedPage: blog.nytimes.com/opinionator, position: MiddleLeft

In the weeks after 9/11, Pamela Cantor, a child psychiatrist specializing in trauma, was enlisted by the New York City Board of Education to lead a team studying the impact of the attacks on the city’s public school children.

 

What the researchers discovered surprised them. Many children in city schools exhibited symptoms of trauma — but the problems weren’t clearly attributable to 9/11 nor were they clustered near Ground Zero. Such symptoms were, however, concentrated in schools serving the city’s poorest children. And the students’ sense of threat or insecurity stemmed not so much from terrorism as from exposure to violence, inadequate housing, sudden family loss, parents with depression or addictions, and so forth.

 

“One-fifth of children met criteria for a full-blown psychiatric disorder, and 68 percent of kids had been exposed to a prior trauma sufficient to impair their functioning in school,” said Cantor.

 

Read the entire report here.

Anger/Desperation

Driving into Downtown Dallas from Deep Ellum out of S. Dallas, I spotted a rather animated homeless man. 

Not so unusual, but one thing I saw him do, as I rolled to a stop at a traffic light, caught my attention. 

Someone had left a plastic cup turned upside-down on a post (once a parking meter).  The man grabbed the cup, threw it to the ground in disgust and cursed in anger--I read his lips.

What came next broke my heart.

He reached into a trash can also beside the sidewalk and pulled out a large drink cup with the safety lid still in place.  Some liquid remained in the discarded cup. 

I watched him survey us who watched from the comfort of our cars.  He then turned away and drank whatever was left in the used cup.

It matters not how the man got "there." 

The fact is, he is "there." 

Watching him from my "here," turned my stomach. 

The man needs a place to live.

He needs someone to care.

He needs a second or a thousandth chance.

He needs what I need:  grace and a hot cup of coffee.

I think I understand something of his anger.

Poverty and brain development

Poverty shrinks brains from birth       

Studies show that children from low-income families have smaller brains and lower cognitive abilities.  Sara Reardon

30 March 2015

 

 

 

The stress of growing up poor can hurt a child’s brain development starting before birth, research suggests — and even very small differences in income can have major effects on the brain.

 

Researchers have long suspected that children’s behaviour and cognitive abilities are linked to their socioeconomic status, particularly for those who are very poor. The reasons have never been clear, although stressful home environments, poor nutrition, exposure to industrial chemicals such as lead and lack of access to good education are often cited as possible factors. 

 

In the largest study of its kind, published on 30 March in Nature Neuroscience¹, a team led by neuroscientists Kimberly Noble from Columbia University in New York City and Elizabeth Sowell from Children's Hospital Los Angeles, California, looked into the biological underpinnings of these effects. They imaged the brains of 1,099 children, adolescents and young adults in several US cities. Because people with lower incomes in the United States are more likely to be from minority ethnic groups, the team mapped each child’s genetic ancestry and then adjusted the calculations so that the effects of poverty would not be skewed by the small differences in brain structure between ethnic groups.

 

Read the entire essay here.

So proud of my dear friend, Rev. Gerald Britt and so is The Dallas Morning News!

Check this out!

"Poor" folks and wealth building

Are Government Efforts to Help Poor People Manage Money Working?

Cities have offered financial counseling to low-income people for years, but only recently have some tracked the impact of these services on clients' debt, credit and savings.

by J.B. Wogan | April 6, 2015

      

Many low-income people rely on payday lenders and check cashers that charge higher fees than traditional banks. (AP/Al Behrman)

  

For decades, nonprofits that serve the poor have tried to impart lessons about managing money, but until recently it’s been hard to know whether the services work. Now a multi-city initiative is tracking and sharing results, addressing the effectiveness of financial counseling for the poor.

Read more here.

Hope

Plotting the Resurrection

[Writing of his wife Katharine, who was planning the planting of bulbs in her garden even though she knew she likely would not live to see the spring.] There was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance…. The small hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.

E. B. White
Source: Quoted in A Time to Live by Robert Raines

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"Every week"

I could have taken scores of sad, moving photos, but out of respect for the frustration and suffering of those involved, I refrained. 

People literally dragged the tents shown here from under the freeway overpasses and lined them up on the sidewalks. 

Later, after the police left, they set them up again under the same overpasses.

"Every week they do this," a very tired gentleman told me.  "Every week it's the same."

Sadly, every day hundreds of our neighbors set up homemaking under the naked sky. 

Emergency shelters provide cover for some at night.  But morning comes and everyone is forced out until the intake hour arrives in late afternoon for most programs. 

Some folks have decided that the last shred of dignity they possess can be protected only by remaining outside and independent.  I respect that. 

Of course, what people need is housing, plain and simple. 

That's why these tents project both sadness and hope.

Almost always a tent is a home owned by the one who sleeps in it at night. 

People don't like living on the streets. 

What is needed is the development of hundreds of homes and the loving friendship that can grow from a neighborhood. 

Sometimes a tent city is about the limit of the available capacity for people who don't seek handouts, but simply peace and progress. 

There is something, no, there is much to learn in this reality. 

Emptiness

   A Door Opens

A door opens in the center of our being and we seem to fall through it into immense depths which, although they are infinite, are all accessible to us; all eternity seems to have become ours in this one placid and breathless contact. God touches us with a touch that is emptiness and empties us. God moves us with a simplicity that simplifies us.

Thomas Merton
Source: New Seeds of Contemplation

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Texas should expand Medicaid

Texas political leaders prove themselves irresponsible for not expanding Medicaid. 

Take a look right here at the gains made by other states that decided to expand the health benefit to poorer folks. 

Why do voters tolerate shortsighted public policy against their own self-interest?

Owen: Long pass, big gain!

Watching my grandchildren play, dance, sing and live in joy makes life pretty amazing!

Here's a clip from Owen's flag football game on last Saturday. He has quite an arm!
 

 

Cottages "portfolio" update

Photos below: 1-2) floor systems being built--Cottages with private bath and full kitchen 3) foam insulation being applied to flooring systems 4) flooring systems place 50 Cottages together in tight-knit community 5) CitySquare's new Opportunity Center located just across the street from new housing 6-7) insulation pumped to houses ensures dry and efficient climate control 8) more Cottages to be placed on open spaces 9) foundation for community services building in place.