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Spare a Moment

To recognise that regardless of the current GFC - things are pretty good for you right now!

A good friend Adam Shay, from The Face recently introduced me to the writings and world of Rev Graham Young, who is the Pastor at the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross, Sydney.

For those not familiar with the Wayside Chapel, it is a Chapel dedicated to the recovering addicts, homeless and those in need in Kings Cross.  It is a legendary organisation doing amazing work…and Rev Graham Young has been behind much of this.

Rev Young is regarded as one of the most influential Sydney-siders, and a living legend in Australia!

This is a recent letter to his ‘Inner Circle’ which I encourage you to read and consider…

Dear Inner Circle,
 
I think that perhaps the tough times in the economy have brought out the best in many people. This year our support at Christmas time was record breaking. We made and delivered 900+ hampers this year which was a significant increase on previous years. On Christmas Day we served 2400 meals which was about the same as last year although probably down a little on the preceding few years. We think the demand for hampers reflects the increased need in the community and the slight decrease in numbers on Christmas Day may be because so many people are throwing parties on Christmas Day now. We are delighted that more people and organizations are serving others on Christmas Day.
 
January is usually a rough month for us at Wayside. It could be that people have spent too much, drunk too much, gambled too much but whatever the reason, the weeks that follow Christmas seem every year to be the time for family breakdown and for personal breakdown. Last week a man slit his throat right in front of one of our staff. Just this week a 17 year old boy who had been sniffing glue, paint and butane (lighter fluid) lost his life. It has shaken our youth team significantly. We take such losses personally and there have been plenty of tears shed for this poor boy who died way too young.
 
Hear my confession. Just before Christmas the Prime Minister sent out cheques of $1400 to pensioners and I said at the time that I expected this to cause all kinds of mayhem in and around Kings Cross. I was wrong. There was a little more drinking than normal and for a short time, it looked like people were drinking those expensive mixed spirit drinks in cans. So I hope that the PM’s stimulus initiative did some good for the economy. My predicted mayhem for Kings Cross, just didn’t happen.
 
Surprisingly, it is not uncommon for us to be asked to help clean up someone’s room or flat that has become over-run with junk. Every such request presents us with a slow, painful, frustrating and expensive task. It seems many poor people are hoarders. Many people pick up broken TVs or all manner of discarded stuff because it seems too good to go to waste. Many people who are renting rooms, have their tenancy threatened because of the junk that soon enough becomes a problem in a single room. From Wayside’s point of view, we don’t have the horsepower or the time or the money to make trips to the dump but we have jumped in many times because we know that failure to help, will very likely lead to someone becoming homeless again. This morning I had one such request. To be honest, this was not how I wanted to start this day but soon enough I heard a story of how this man had a child who he had not seen for 10 years and how pretty much every week, he buys a present for his child just in case a meeting happens. What started as a nuisance finished as a sharing of deep heartache.
 
In a “this world has gone to ruin” type conversation, a man told me recently about how he learned his morals from his grandfather. This is quite a fine man and so I listened with interest to how he loved his grandfather and the trouble and time the old man took to give this fellow a moral foundation. It’s a long story but at the end of the conversation I asked what kinds of moral lessons were taught. With literally a tear in his eye, he gave the example from his grandfather’s lips “If you are going to steal, make sure you steal from the rich” he said. “The rich will have insurance and so you’re not really hurting them” was grandfather’s expansion on this rule.  Until that moment, I thought our grandfather’s stories were similar. My grandfather was big on moral lessons too but they were more along the lines of “do your best, your very best and do it every day”.
 
There is no doubt that we are in grim economic times. I promise you however that no economic loss comes close to the loss of a loved one.  I would recommend that you look carefully into the faces of those that you love the most today. Enjoy those faces and find in them the source of true riches.
 
Thanks for being part of our inner circle.