Tuesday, February 23, 2010

LIFE IN A NO-WIN WORLD!

The good thing is that the gangs in La Cruces and Laguna aren't fighting each other anymore ... the bad thing is that the have aligned themselves in a mutual hatred against the police and authority.

More excitement. More danger. In every barrio Feral teens are running in packs!

These kids are out gunned and under equipped but well compensated by knowing their territory and their hatred of the authorities.

Police; better watch your backs ... and your families. Hate is inclusive.

Maybe that's why the police cruse these areas in five police car convoys with their Christmas lights flashing! Makes quite a sight. Makes quite a target too.

Testosterone vs. testosterone! As the kids will say, "it all comes down to balls."

In Laguna one day I remember sitting in my car watching a bunch of teens messing around in their basketball court when the police arrived ... half the kids headed every direction like rabbits; the other six didn't run, just quietly stood there. The quiet kids just standing there were cuffed and hauled away in a police pick-up truck, interrogated, beaten and then released to walk home.

These undisciplined kids need their beatings and the police need to beat someone ... I guess they deserve each other.

Last night Victor, 17, father of two little girls, was walking home from work when he encountered the police near his neighborhood. They told him to stand still but instead he ran. Bad move ... the police shot him dead! Victor wasn't really a bad kid. He wasn't even wanted ... but he's a dead kid now! He lived in Laguna.

Another Cop snuffed out a young life. Sleep well Sr. Policia.

At the mortuary last night Victor's teen friends from Laguna gathered to kiss the casket. The police soon appeared looking to take all his teen friends to jail and 'interrogate' them. Fortunately Hortensia was there to talk the police out of it.

If you do, or if you don't, if you're one or many, stand or run ... You'll be pulled, interrogated, beaten and released.

Just a way of life for these wandering packs of feral teens.

These wild teens we work with are in every neighborhood with guns, knives or broken bottles ... they're armed and angry.

They hate! Their target ... the police.

Pray for us as we work their world; trying to make peace, and trying to convince them to take another direction. It's hard while anger and hate blind their minds.

But we Believe all things are possible with God!

By the way, somehow they found out the address of the policeman that shot Victor ... this isn't good! Sr. Policeman, watch your back!

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

HOW I DEFINE THE POOR

Some have been offended and others confused when I use the term 'the deserving poor'. I'm not putting these people down, I'm simply calling it what it is; poverty that's deserved.

Is it true that Spectrum works with the 'deserving poor'? Yes.

Naturally some of Jesus doctrine on giving to the poor would have a Jewish spin on it. I think what our Lord pushed was helping the poor including the 'deserving poor.' Examples: The leper, the blind, the cripple, the orphaned, the widowed ... those who had little or no part in they're plight. These poor were not responsible for their plight. Those I would call the 'un-deserving' of their plight ... the 'un-deserving' poor.

However another perspective surfaces in Matthew 25 where Jesus does address the 'deserving' poor. 'Visiting those in prison.' Grace appears for the sinners ... those of us who are 'deserving' of our plight.

The Believer's love or compassion must never become affected by 'hairsplitting' legality! The Bible gives no list of do's or don'ts when it comes to helping the poor. A legal doctrine as to how, who, when, and where would simply rule out Grace! Of course we must at times make a judgment call, but always with the honest of motives ... always with the bottom line of grace. The grace we received, we return to others.

I personally help both the 'deserving poor' and the 'un-deserving poor' and I try to free myself of a judgmental attitude.

As to what I call the 'deserving' poor; I would define them as those who are like most of the poor Spectrum works with; people who are living out their own consequences. Most of these 'deserving poor' are where they are because they have made bad decisions; many are lazy or addicted to drugs. Thousands captured and content with their poverty-sub-culture and confirmed by the many well meaning American groups giving them food and clothing.

There is no way we can turn our hearts from the innocent children born into this kind of 'subculture.' Indeed they are 'un-deserving poor' learning the lifestyle of poverty.

In Mexico there is a saying "what I don't see doesn't exist." Even as Christians many of us have the same philosophy and we turn our eyes away from the ugly and uncomfortable truth.

The big question for us as true Christians ... does grace discriminate? The answer is simply no. The way I read it; to God we're all poor, wretched, blind sinners awaiting condemnation.

Enter, God's grace.

How I relate to the poor around me says something about my Christian maturity. If I'm eager to discriminate between the 'deserving poor' and 'un-deserving' poor! It sounds a bit like the bigot Lawyer asking Jesus. “ and who is my neighbor?' The motive behind that question was so clear!

Many who love to argue the issue never give a cent to charity anyway.

It's true that as Christians we must make good and responsible decisions when we are faced with helping the poor, but our response must be the result of a clean and godly motive.

I hope to go through life with a godly balance in meeting the needs of all poor, the deserving; the un-deserving alike, and when I err ... may I err on the side of grace.

God, release my grip on the money you give me to do the good it was intended to do.

Monday, February 08, 2010

FUN AND FOOLS

I was very rich once, but walked away a few hours later ... bankrupt! Just as poor as I was when I started the game. This paper dream was fun while it lasted. Monopoly, one of the most popular board games ever invented! Mini capitalism on a board. Big money, buying and selling. Taking advantage of a simple throw of the dice.

Monopoly!

What powers this game is the same thing that powers Capitalism ... greed!

How fun it is to be rich! Filthy rich! Nothing else matters while you're throwing those dice.

Capitalism is a system that works. Capitalism: regulated greed that's open to all ... can't help but be successful; we all are born with what it takes ... greed! The smart energetic person is rewarded ... the dumb and lazy person, well, he loses. It's as simple as that.

The down side of Capitalism, and there is a down side. Capitalism gives us what we need, and that's good, but then Capitalism gives us what we want and that can be bad. What we want is seldom what we need. We want leisure, ease, pleasure, immorality, entertainment; we want what tastes good. We want, and can afford to buy, what makes us weak.

Alas, the better Capitalism works, the more affluent we get, and the more affluent we get, the more decadent we get. Like a pleasurable and slow acting narcotic we succumb to our desires. Weak. Spoiled.

The fatal blow comes when we begin to realize that it was just a card game and paper wealth after all ... and while playing the game we gained nothing and missed everything.

We missed what life was all about.