May 30, 2011
My son David had his grade 12 graduation this past weekend. He was chosen by his classmates to be the Valedictorian. This week’s Howzaviz? is excerpts from his address that was met with a standing ovation from all in attendance.
Enjoy.
“The air was filled with the stench of animal manure and human waste. I had to watch my step to avoid getting my feet stuck in the sewage that ran freely through the streets. The air was hot, thick and heavy with polluted humidity seeping into every pore of my skin. On either side of me were makeshift houses no bigger than dumpsters. These houses were made of tarp, wood and string. Every breath was difficult because flies were trying to get up my nose and into my eyes and mouth.
The scene I’ve described occurred when I was in Grade 9 and I was walking through an illegal slum in New Delhi, India. I had already been in India for about 3 weeks and I was about to go home, but little did I know that this experience in the final days of my trip would become one of the single most transformational moments of my life. During that visit to the slum, I met a girl named Salma. Salma was fourteen years old (the same age as me) and lived in the slum. She could not afford to go to school and she and her widowed mother worked 7 days a week as rag pickers in the junk pile outside their door. Their job was to sort through piles of garbage and pick what was returnable and what wasn’t. What captivated me most about Salma was her smile. In amongst all this poverty and the fact that she had almost nothing, she still always wore one of the most beautiful smiles I had ever seen. She even invited us into her house for a glass of pop, which cost a month’s wages to buy. We were visiting Salma because we were there with a team of individuals who were trying to help people like Salma to leave the slum and receive training to become paid artisans. Salma was learning how to embroider and when she showed us her work, I could tell that she was very proud of her accomplishments.
This experience was so humbling for me and it made me realize how much I have and how often I take it for granted. Unlike Salma, I never think twice about having necessities such as clean water, food, clothing, a roof over my head and an education. As I thought about Salma’s daily struggle to survive in a dangerous world, I realized that I wake up each day in a bubble of comfortable convenience. Standing beside Salma, I was a giant – even though we were the same age – because I live in a world where food is plentiful and she lives in a world where food- if she can even afford it- is scarce. In terms of making choices and having options for the future, Salma has few options and little choice whereas I have a vast frontier of options: for schooling as a whole let alone post-secondary education, for choosing where and how I’m going to live, and for the career path I am choosing to live by.
This is when my mind experienced a major shift. I began to wonder how the abundance of my life was connected to the purpose of my life. In the midst the extreme poverty of the slum, I began to wonder how I could just stand by and take so much for granted when there are people like Salma who are barely scratching a life out of the dust. I began to realize that the abundance I enjoy was also meant to be shared or given away somehow so that people like Salma can have some choices and options for their future as well. As I became aware of my privileged standard of living, I started asking myself: How can increase my standard of giving?
I realized from that experience that with great privilege comes the great responsibility to contribute to the betterment of other people’s lives. I realized that, in life, I need to value what I have and to use what I have to serve others in some way. I realized that I needed to more concerned about my standard of giving than my standard of living.
May the measure of success in your life be your standard of giving not your standard of living.”
II Corinthians 9:6-8
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”