searching for treasures in a dump

We could barely hide our disgust as the stench enveloped us. This was supposed to be an uplifting experience for our visiting team from Carlisle. We had notched out a part of our day to serve lunch to some of the kids from the Guatemala City Dump. But we hadn't planned on perching with the vultures on a cemetery precipice overlooking the raw and ugly scene below. It wasn't so much what we saw or smelled that affected us (although that was bad enough), it was what we felt.

Pure. Undiluted. Hopelessness.

Some of us covered our noses and mouths.

Some of us walked away and distracted ourselves with photo ops. Some of us silently cried. And some of us asked clarifying questions to help digest the scene more fully.

After a few moments I was asked to pray...

What can one pray in these moments? That life will get better for these garbage scavengers? Because that's highly unlikely. That they will have a good experience of hunting and discovering whatever garbage will sustain their family for another day? Because that seems awfully temporal. That they will be protected from disease and pestilence? Or that somehow, and in someway they will someday know a different life than the one that is their current reality?

What would you pray?

Moments like these help us discover what we really believe. Do we really believe that God is enough? Do we really believe that the worst thing is not to live a life of scavenging, but to live a life without God? Do we really believe that the next life will far outweigh and overcome whatever difficulties we face in this temporary life?

Is it better to live scavenging in garbage for food and clothing and to know God, or to live in a comfortable home with all our needs met and NOT know Him? It's good to think about that...

And how do our lives look from His vantage point? How many of us are existing by scavenging in earthly garbage dumps for treasures that are not really treasures at all...asking for temporary things to sustain our eternal appetites? How many of us are afraid to let go of a half-eaten apple while God is reaching His hand out for us to hold?

I was glad for this experience. I was glad for our team to see, smell and process the dump, and witness the thousands of "treasures" scavenging for daily sustenance.

But my prayer for Christians in the States (and myself, of course) is that we would just as easily feel and see the pure, undiluted hopelessness when people try to live their lives outside of a relationship with the Creator...no matter how clean and comfortable their lives look on earth.

(Don)

New Living Translation (©2007)

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.