Mar
28
2017
Do Something
Posted in Daily Living 4 Comments
We honeymooned in Mexico.
On an October day, thirty-five years ago, our plane landed in Mexico City.
A few day later we traveled southwest to the city of Taxco.
Taxco is famous for its silver jewelry and its Spanish colonial architecture.
After Taxco, we went to Acapulco.
Neither my husband or I are the kind of people who enjoy day after day at the beach.
Perhaps it is our Irish skin that burns far to easily.
Perhaps it is our need to see things rather than just lay on the beach all day.
It was a perfect way to end our honeymoon.
The pools at the hotel would have kept me quite satisfied.
However, I really wanted to put my feet in the Pacific ocean.
For some reason, that was very important to me.
Before we went on our honeymoon, everyone gave us bits of traveling advice.
The majority of advice I received had to do with our time in Acapulco.
I had all sorts of warnings that surprised me.
There were the obvious warnings about food choices and drinking water.
One warning had to do with the children.
The children are very poor there, I was told over and over.
They are going to be begging constantly and asking you for money, I heard again and again.
Don’t look too American, was the sage advice of another.
First, I love children and found that bit of advice quite annoying.
Second, I was confused because I knew that Acapulco was a resort area.
Third, I have been approached on the street before whenever I was in a city.
It was the elaboration of their advice that seemed unbelievable to me.
They are going to try to sell you gum, someone told me who had just returned from Acapulco.
I don’t see any harm in buying some gum, I answered.
It’s not just any gum, they continued.
They are going to sell you Chiclets.
I still did not see any problem with a child selling me a box of Chiclets.
You just wait and see, was all they said to me.
I told my husband but neither of us were concerned.
We dismissed their advice.
It was when we went to see the cliff divers that it happened.
The cliff diving tradition began in the 1930s.
Young men competed to see who could dive from the highest point to the sea below.
The local people began to ask for tips to see the young men dive.
The divers are now professional divers.
They dive from heights of 130 feet.
The dive into an inlet that is only 23 feet wide and 13 feet deep.
The divers stand on the cliffs and pray before they dive into the water.
As we were walking to see the cliff divers, some adorable children were coming towards us.
In their best English, they asked if we wanted to buy Chiclets.
I turned to my husband and gave him a look, non-verbally saying that we should.
We stopped to buy the Chiclets from the oldest little boy.
I held out my hand to accept the box of Chiclets.
Instead of the whole box, he tilted it on its side and poured out two tiny white squares.
Apparently, the two squares of Chiclets were for me and my husband.
He took our money and left us, walking towards people that were far behind us.
None of it mattered.
I did not need a box of Chiclets.
I actually thought there was some ingenuity to his salesmanship.
Others may have thought that we were tricked into getting less than we thought.
I will never forget the face of that little boy.
In a resort town, there was desperately poor people right next door.
That seemed to open my eyes more than being sold two Chiclets.
No matter where we live, there are needs in our own backyards.
We see it on our city streets.
The homeless sit on sidewalks with handmade signs made from old cardboard boxes.
Even at strategic intersections, someone will hold a sign asking for financial help.
We can judge, we can question their methods, or we can help them.
I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
(Edward Everett Hale)
We can buy a few gift cards to a local restaurant and hand them to the people on the street.
We can make sandwiches and give out bottled water.
We can meet their needs in creative ways.
We can do something.
If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs…There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land. (Deuteronomy 15:7,8,11)
Receiving two Chiclets or an entire box did not matter.
We are to be openhanded to the poor and needy.
We can be creative in what we do to meet their needs but we must do something.
God commands it.
The face of the little boy in Acapulco is before me.
His hand extended, with two white Chiclets in his palm, is a vivid memory.
Two white Chiclets.
We had to do something.
Thanks for sharing this story and your Whispers of His Movement. I had been preaching in all the places you mention on this post…. there or here… you are absolutely right! We need to do something!
Amen, Pastor Carlos!
May God give us the discernment to know what it is that we need to do!
Blessings as you preach the Word of God here or there!
Gina
So true! We think sometimes that we can;t do anything significant to help the less fortunate among us–but what if we ALL did a little something? What a difference it would make!!
Sue,
I always loved a quote from Mother Theresa of Calcutta when she said, “Go out and do something small for God.” It is not the amount of what we do but rather the heart with which we do it.
Gina