Africa Reflections 3 - Starvation Mentality

We were all shocked at how much the orphans could eat.

On our first Sunday in Uganda we had dinner at the Loving One by One orphanage. We were all amazed as we saw the mountainous piles of food on the plates of these 5, 6, & 7 year-olds.

We were even more astounded as they scarfed down their food, most of them finishing everything that had been on their plates. One boy in particular though, didn't finish. His name is Henry. I sat next to Henry as he ate...and ate..and ate. Until he let out a painful sigh - he had put way too much on his plate and couldn't finish.

We mentioned to the founder of the orphanage how amazed we were that these kids could and would eat so much. She responded, "They still have that starvation mentality."

It made sense. All of these kids were impoverished orphans who had lived lives where they didn't always know if they'd be able to eat again. And so, when they have the opportunity to have a heaping plateful of food, they take it...and consume it all.

Sure American's eat a ton too. But that's because we have no self control, hence our obesity epidemic.

Regardless, it struck me as incredibly sad, but understandable, that these children still had that starvation mentality.

But there's one area in our life when a Starvation Mentality is right:

"Persons need not and ought not to set any bounds to their spiritual and gracious appetites...

instead they ought to be endeavoring by all possible ways to inflame their desires and to obtain more spiritual pleasures...

our hungerings and thirstings after God and Jesus Christ and after holiness can't be too great for the value of these things for they are things of infinite value...

therefore endeavor to promote spiritual appetites by laying yourself in the way of allurement.

There is no such thing as excess in our taking of this spiritual food.

There is no virtue in temperance in spiritual feasting."

- Jonathan Edwards

Word

"Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,
who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face"

Psalm 89:15

Africa - Short Reflections 2

Brooks Brothers. JCrew. Vineyard Vines.

There was a period in my life, right when I started working at UBS, that I had this nagging desire to be proper and preppy. Part of the reason was my newfound environment.

The vast majority of people in my team at UBS went to an Ivy League undergrad / business school, then worked at Bain / BCG / McKinsey before coming to UBS. They had boating sneakers. They had belts with little whales and wore yellow cashmere sweaters. I...had none of those.

I browed through those cloting websites mentioned above and realized I could never bring myself to change my whole wardrobe...I was either too stingy, too lazy, or both.

....

As I thought about that "phase" I realized how incredibly stupid it was - and how incredibly fortunate I already am to have shoes, socks, clothes - no matter what's on the tag and what kind of animal is embrodiered on it. I was pissed at myself for ever wanting to fit an image or a mold artificially created by marketers and clothing companies. Walking through the slums makes companies like Brooks Brothers seem evil (even if they really aren't) - certainly, wanting to fit that image IS evil I believe. I almost despise even having the option & means to live like that.

I think the more we care about God and people the less we will care about purchasing and acquiring clothes for the sake of image and vanity...and instead think about truly being clothed and truely re-imaged.

We would think about Christ, who was disrobed, stripped naked, pulverzied and put on a cross so that one day our bodies would be made whole for eternity and we would never have to be naked again, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. He took on the life of a poor peasant man and lived in poverty so that we could enjoy the infinite riches of His kindness.

Africa - Short Reflections 1

Hi - I'm going to write short, raw / unedited (and possibly incomplete) thoughts here as they relate to my experience in Africa.

...

I'm writing to reflect, learn, change and possibly inspire. Though inspiring is aspirational. I'm not writing to live in the past as I think many are inclined to do after an incredible experience.

This is far different than the man downstairs who runs the Laundromat. He wears John Lennon glasses and John Lennon clothes. His accessories are stuck in the past – and so is the music blaring from his store. Everything he talks about is in the context of the past. He starts sentences with "Back then…", "It used to be that…", "Life was better when…." This is a man stuck in the past that hasn't even been able to move on. He lives with a chip on his shoulder on behalf of a generation decades gone.

....

1. We are all rich. I know it doesn't always feel like it, particularly during a recession. But we all live in luxury, just to varying degrees. If you have shoes, have access to electricity and clean water, access to health care and education then you're pretty well off.

2. We are all poor. We all have a longing for something - comfort, home, familiarity, excitement...something fulfilling. And we've impoverished our own souls by our lives of luxury. We've all formed our own golden calf and worshiped at its feet. Our lives of comfort and status seeking (we all do it even if you think you don't), hasn't masked the emptiness within, but its only deepened it and exposed it. We've sold our souls more than we'd like to admit.

Back and Waiting

Africa = amazing
Waiting for Business School Application Results = the most distracting thing ever

Stanford - dinged
Yale - digned
UCLA - dinged! I confess I was genuinely surprised. I thought I had this...humbling indeed.
Duke - dinged, then admitted
Kellogg - waitlist
Michigan - admitted


waiting on...
Harvard
Columbia
Haas

At this point, I'm actually very relieved that I got into Michigan already. All I needed was One.

Today, I leave for Africa

Slums. Kenya.

In LA

Phoenix, from the sky.
See.
Eat.


....

Psalm 63

My Soul Thirsts for You

A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.

63:1 O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.

5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

....

You might think this is a Pslam about someone flying from the deserts of Arizona to LA, but it's not.