Excerpt from The Giver by Lois Lowry (pg. 97-99):

“Well . . .” Jonas had to stop and think it through. “If everything’s the same, then there aren’t any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things! A blue tunic, or a red one?”

He look down at himself, at the colorless fabric of his clothing. “But it’s all the same, always.”

Then he laughed a little. “I know it’s not important, what you wear. It doesn’t matter. But – ”

“It’s the choosing that’s important, isn’t it?” The Giver asked him.

Jonas nodded. “My little brother – ” he began, and then corrected himself. “No, that’s inaccurate. He’s not my brother, not really. But this newchild that my family takes care of – his name’s Gabriel.”

“Yes, I know about Gabriel.”

“Well, he’s right at the age where he’s learning so much. He grabs toys when we hold them in front of him – my father says he’s learning small-muscle control. And he’s really cute.”

The Giver nodded.

“But now that I can see colors, at least sometimes, I was just thinking: what if we could hold up things that were bright red, or bright yellow, and he could choose? Instead of the Sameness.”

“He might make wrong choices.”

“Oh.” Jonas was silent for a minute. “Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn’t matter for a newchild’s toy. But later it does matter, doesn’t it? We don’t dare to let people make choices of their own.”

“Not safe?” The Giver suggested.

“Definitely not safe,” Jonas said with certainty. “What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong?

“Or what if,” he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, “they chose their own jobs?”

“Frightening, isn’t it?” The Giver said.

Jonas chuckled. “Very frightening. I can’t even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices.”

“It’s safer.”

“Yes,” Jonas agreed. “Much safer.”

But when the conversation turned to other things, Jonas was left, still, with a feeling of frustration that he didn’t understand.

Legacy

The following is the invocation speech I gave at the recent Women's Tea put on by Hillview Acres Women's Auxiliary:

Last week the president of the university I attended passed away. In fact, his memorial service is occurring right now as I stand here speaking to all of you. When I received this news yesterday, I was overcome with emotion, but also with pride at the legacy this gentleman leaves behind him. I was also excited at the joy I understood knowing that Dr. Cook has a relationship with Jesus and was welcomed into God’s very presence upon his passing from this world to his true home.

Likewise, we at Hillview deal with issues of legacy everyday. The legacy we have chosen is a legacy of love. I describe what we do at Hillview as simply loving kids who need love. I could spend hours telling you all about what that looks like at Hillview and the philosophies that play out there, but when it comes down to it, we’re really just doing our best to love a handful of abused and neglected children in the same way that God loves us: wholly, unconditionally, and without reserve.

Our legacy of love does not affect just our personal lives for those of us who spend our days working at Hillview, but it also affects the lives of the children who are placed in our care. We all hold the opportunity to participate in this legacy. If you are here in this room today, you, too, are participating in loving those who need love. I applaud you for this.

We hold the opportunity to help the children at Hillview live out a new legacy in their lives. We hold the opportunity to extend hope to the children in our children in our care. Anyone walking on the street might look at any one of our kids and say no hope exists there, but I refuse to believe that lie. As we work to love each kid we also speak truth to them and challenge them to leave their own beautiful legacy behind them. We challenge lies in their lives like, “The world is always scary, Adults can’t be trusted, and I am not valuable and cannot be loved.”

As we build relationship with our kids, God’s legacy of love flows down through us to make a difference in the life of each child at Hillview.

Everyone in the world leaves a legacy. I thank you for choosing to make part of your legacy loving those who need love at Hillview Acres Children’s Home.

Every Monday Matters

I recently came across a website called: www.everymondaymatters.com. The site serves to encourage people to live life a little more intentionally with a little more meaning. It gives a list of practical ideas anyone can do on any given Monday (or any day for that matter). Ideas range from making a list of life priorities to writing a military hero to puchacing energy efficient light bulbs. If anyone checks out the site and actually participates in any of the suggested activities, I'd love to hear about your experience. Feel free to respond to this post and share your story!