towers of blocks.

Life doesn't like to fit into neat compartments. Maybe it shouldn't have taken me 29 years to realize this somewhat profound statement, but it has. Up to this point I have had this idea that there is a way "life is supposed to be." Like, if I don't live up to this certain type of life, things would be incomplete. So, what I try to do is to fill it up with everything I think needs to be in that "supposed to be" life.

I have an amazing wife who loves me no matter what, a son who makes me laugh and smile (and never sleep), a job that I like most of the time, and a church that allows me to be involved in God's work. We live relatively close to our families, we have great neighbors to share the block with, we own our own home, two cars, and have a dog that doesn't throw up when he eats things he's not supposed to. We live in a middle class neighborhood, always have enough to cover the bills, and even get to travel a good deal.

But what I have learned is that as great as all of these things are, the more great things don't neccesarily equal mental stability. Jonathan, my son, really likes to play with the oversized lego blocks. Every morning, when I wish he was still sleeping, we go to our living room, Jonathan sits by his basket of blocks, tells me to sit next to him and starts to build. He really is pretty good, but what he likes to do is build tall skinny towers. he will take the blocks with only one or two knobs and build them higher and higher and then clap for himself. (he obviously had some help with this one). The problem is, it soon falls over because it lacks stability.

That is how my life can feel sometime. I keep piling things on top until it is about to crash. But don't we all do that at some point? Either that or we don't even use the blocks that are available to us. What I have realized, is that life doesn't fit together nicely, but it doesn't stop us from building our towers too high until it's too late. The challenge of life is to figure out how to build our lives in a way that will fit together in a sustainable way. How do our faith commitments interact with what we do at work, at home, or with our neighbors? How do we spend the time with our families and friends in a way that builds them up and glorifies Jesus? How do we find the time to do what God has called us to do and to not go insane doing it? In some ways, I think we need to find where these things intersect and spend the time there. Is there a way that our church responsibilities can be done in the same place/time as our family, work, and community work is done? Maybe or maybe not.

This is obviously something I don't have the answer to, and maybe I never will; all I know is that life isn't supposed to look exactly like something, because it can't. Life is more like the tower Jonathan made, with stuff sticking out here and there. Sometimes we just have to make sure it doesn't fall over.

the (community) cost of unemployment

In a world impacted by a deep recession, we all realize that unemployment hurts those who have lost jobs. People lose their source of income, they play into the credit game to make ends meet, and next thing they know they are facing the very real face of poverty in their own lives. Those of us who have been blessed enough to “weather” the recession relatively unscathed are overlooking a hidden reality though. The unemployment of others in our community is costly to us who are neighbors to the unemployed as well.

When an individual becomes unemployed they often receive social benefits designed to temporarily assist in sustaining an individual or family. Government programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and food stamps or private assistance programs are available to help individuals and families through these ordeals. However, these cost community money. According to www.modestneeds.org, this can be as high as $8664.36 per person each year for public assistance.

The other side of this coin is the amount of revenue a community loses when an individual is not working. If a worker is making $10 an hour (what many would consider a “living” wage), they have a take home pay of $17,777.16 each year that is predominately reinvested into the community (rent, food, etc.). When both aspects are taken into consideration, unemployment has a total effect of $26,441.52 on the community per each unemployed individual!

We need to evaluate what our inacation actually costs. It's easy for us to look at this and place blame, "why aren't these people working? they should just get a job!". What are we doing to assist in this? It's time to stop looking out only for ourselves, but to truly be neighbors to those who most need it. It's messy, it's hard, it's frustrating, it's right. Build your community. What are some of the ways you are developing your local community?