I don't want your Altruism

Why do people give?  

You work really hard to earn money to pay for the things that you need to get through this life.  Why would you simply give some of it away to someone else?  Why would you sign up for a walk or a run or a cruise or a dinner or an auction in order to give money to a non-profit organization?

Researchers will say that people generally give out of one of these two options:

• Altruism: a desire to help mankind without any expectation of personal benefit or gain
• Private Gain: the giver receives something of value from their donation

 Most people that I know, especially Christians, will look at those two options and self-identify as Altruistic Givers.  They want to care for their community and the less fortunate.  They do not give for the tax write-off.  They do not want a lot of praise.  They just want to help.  As someone who has been fundraising for over 15 years, allow me to share this with you:

I do not want Altruistic Givers...ever

If you read the title of this post, this statement probably does not surprise you...but it may give you pause.  Before you tear up that check that you had written out to Joel's Place, allow me to explain.

I believe that all positive human interactions are mutually beneficial.  Both sides benefit.  I believe that is how we were created to operate, how we were created to interact with God and with each other.  When only one side benefits there is a shift in power and right relationships that skewers the entire interaction.  If someone is going to give money to Joel's Place, I think they should benefit in a number of ways:

• They should feel good about the gift.  Donations that are acquired through guilt or panic will pay the bills, but they drive people away from the mission instead of drawing them further into it.  When you give a gift, whether it be $10 or $1,000, know that we are deeply grateful.  Someone asked me the other day, "Will my $10 save Joel's Place?" with a laugh.  Well, no.  Not by itself.  But this endeavor was never meant to be taken on by one person alone.  His $10 will join up with the $10 gifts of his nine friends and we are looking at $100. A smaller donation means that you get to be a part of a larger group, all working towards a common goal.  I do not despise the $10 gift and if that is where you are in your life, neither should you.  (Side note: I do not despise the $1,000 gift either...just to be clear.)
• They should be building their character and integrity because they are living out their convictions.  Want to know what someone truly values in this life?  Look at their bank account.  The money trail points directly to their priorities.  Every time.  Saying that you care for the poor without investing any resources into helping the poor has no integrity. 
• Giving is good for the soul.  It promotes compassion and gratitude.  It crushes materialism and fear.
• They are making their community a better place, both now and for the future.  This is the area that I think has the most tangible, external benefits of giving to Joel's Place.  When you invest in Joel's Place, you are pouring resources into the young people who will shape our community.  You want to lower alcoholism, suicide, and physical abuse in Interior Alaska?  Invest in youth.  You want to break the generational cycles of violence and substance abuse?  Invest in youth.  You want a spiritual awakening?  Invest in youth.  You want creative minds who will be able to bring new industry and vitality to our area?  Invest in youth.  You want certain neighborhoods of our city to get cleaned up and rejuvenated?  Invest in youth.  The key to the big picture problems that we wrestle with is not programs or policies...it is building up the next generation.

The Joel's Place April Alumni Challenge is about a week away from completion.  We have about $2,000 left to raise.  If you were thinking about donating to us because you feel sorry for us or you pity our kids or you have some compelling sense of duty that is driving you, I want you to stop.  Before you give I want you to stop.  I want you to give to Joel's Place because it benefits us and it benefits you.  I want you to give to Joel's Place because you feel good and you grow as a person and it improves this community that you are invested in.  When we have someone who gives out of that place, we gain more than just a donor.  We gain a partner.  A donor can help pay today's bills.  A partner can help transform our entire organization from now far into the future. 

If you have read this blog before, you know what Joel's Place is.  You know what we do and why.  You know our vision of seeing high-risk youth blossom and thrive in this world.  Would you consider partnering with us as we finish up our April Challenge?

Foundational Beliefs

     I have always been more comfortable writing than speaking...well, almost always.  My handwriting grades in fourth grade were low and I almost gave myself an ulcer because of them.  But the sloppiness of my penmanship aside, give me a keyboard over a microphone any day.  Part of that is the freedom of the Delete key and the ability to craft my ideas in their purest form.  A large part, however, are the beliefs and perceptions that I developed as a child that I continue to carry with me as an adult.  These Foundational Beliefs shape how I see myself, how I see others, my expectations entering a room and my interpretations of the day's events.  Foundational Beliefs are powerful lenses that we see the world through.

     I had a sever stutter growing up.  I would get caught on sounds and be unable to get the words out.  Kindergarten through third grade were an incredible challenge.  I was terrified that someone would want to talk to me or that I would be called on to speak in class because I knew that there was a good chance that I would not be able to get all the words out.  I began practicing what I was going to say in my head before I actually spoke the words, going over the sentences to try to eliminate problematic sounds and phrases.  Little kids laughing at you is hard, but it was secondary to how I felt about myself.  I was so angry that my body would not do what I wanted it to.  I felt such bitterness towards myself because I could not get out my thoughts and feelings without having a lengthy internal monologue.  Every word that I spoke was measured in a cost/benefit analysis.  Would the value of speaking and connecting with people outweigh the potential pain and embarrassment of stuttering again?  Often it was just easier to be quiet and listen...gravitating towards the fringes.  I chose sports like swimming where I was underwater for most of the time and did not need to speak.  I took on support roles instead of leading roles.  I convinced myself that my voice did not matter so that I would not be disappointed that I could not reliably use it.

     I have learned to mask my stutter over the years through speech therapy and by recognizing some of the triggers.  Fatigue and stress will make the issues more pronounced.  There are still some times where I go to start a sentence that begins with a vowel and cannot get anything out.  Fortunately I have a large vocabulary and can usually think up a way to start the sentence with a consonant in order to get rolling without most people noticing.  Now I find myself talking all the time.  All. The. Time.  I have meetings and public speaking events and fundraising events and trainings sessions and more meetings and so on and so on.  I have mostly conquered my fears of public speaking and talking with people in small groups...but I have found that I still carry those Foundational Beliefs with me.  I am usually tempted to listen from the outside instead of speaking up.  I gravitate towards service instead of leadership.  I frequently find myself believing that I am the outsider whose voice does not matter.

     I bring this up not to fish for affirmation or wallow in self-pity.  I bring it up to point to the power of Foundational Beliefs which are often embraced when we are children.  People see what they are looking for.  Once you take on a belief that you are an outsider, you will see more and more supporting evidence.  Once you believe that you are funny, you will see more and more supporting evidence and that belief will grow into becoming an integral part of you.

     The youth that come to Joel's Place are smack dab in the middle of establishing their Foundational Beliefs.  Beliefs about themselves...about how the world works...about who God is...about what they can and cannot do.  Many of our kids already have the understanding that they are unwanted...undesirable...broken in some way.  They may come from homes where one or both parents have left.  They may come from a home where one or both parents are abusive.  They may have trouble learning at school or troubles sitting still or difficulty speaking.  They come to us feeling insecure and angry and afraid.  They come with the unspoken whisper of a hope that someone might think they are valuable...worthwhile...not a mistake or an accident.  Could their voice actually matter?

     Yes.  Yes.  A thousand times, yes.  Joel's Place is here to offer a chance.  A chance to exchange these doubts, fears and insecurities for a new set of Foundational Beliefs.  The teens who come through our doors are Adventurous and Creative, filled with laughter, capable of deep friendships and they are loved.  So immensely loved.  They are loved by our staff and even more by their Heavenly Father who created them unique and perfect, not a mistake in the whole group.

     These are the Foundational Beliefs we want to pass on to the kids who come to Joel's Place.  The more they hang out here, the more they take those in...the more they put them on and take ownership of them.  This is Eternal Work we are doing here and I am so honored to be a part of it.

Visitors

Joel's Place is putting on a special workshop this weekend.  We have some new friends from way down south who will be up here the next few days to offer their insights and experiences in building relationships with young people.  Pastor Alberto Suriel and David Greshel, both from City of Refuge Church in Melbourne, Florida, will be joining Christy Bauman who teaches in Haiti. 

• Saturday night will be the first session from 7-10. There will be worship and discussion around shifting church trends among this next generation.
• Sunday's session will be from 3-7 with a potluck dinner with conversation focusing on Reaching Youth and Re-engaging our Society.  There is no cost and the event is open to everyone who is interested in engaging youth for the kingdom.

One of the interesting things about having guests is that you get to observe their first impressions of you.  What do they see?  What do they not see?  What jumps out to them as they look around for the first time?  Alberto writes a blog at  http://forerunnervision.com.  This is his entry entitled "Alaska, Day 1"

Alaska Day 1

SonofthisCityApril 10MissionsAbroad, Alaska, Community

Alaska is such a hidden treasure. You have a massive state that is largely unknown by the other 49 states below it. Dimensionally it’s enormous. Let’s put it this way if you were to cut the state in half it would still be bigger than Texas. But despite the size of the land it’s only populated by roughly 700,000 people with an estimated 300,000 of them living in Anchorage alone. To offer perspective, Orlando has about 3,000,000 people in just one city! So the largest state, that can fit Texas, California and Montana has 700,000 people living spread out in small villages and towns that take planes and boats to visit. This naturally creates isolation and a problematic obstacle to vault over when responding with aid and assistance. How do you respond to a cry for help when it will take several hours to arrive on location?
Alaska draws different people groups that create a large spectrum of very diverse cultural backgrounds. From Russians, Bulgarians, Samoans, to exclusive cults and a growing mormon community. I haven’t mentioned the diverse dynamics between the varying natives living both north and south of the Arctic Circle with their difference in languages beliefs and traditions. Then you toss in the local transplants. These are the people that have lived here all their lives or moved here when they were young and have seen the economic woes, the long winter depressions, and the beauty of spring when it finally buds. I’m sure I’ve only experienced the tip of the iceberg (Get it? ‘Cause icebergs exist here!) There is also a growing Asian, Filipino, and hispanic community. Diversity right?
Now after a while you begin to sense a quiet loneliness. This is where the substance abuse and suicide rates (which are higher than anywhere in the US) start kidnapping lives one by one. With all this distance and very little way of policing the far off villages, who’s to stand against the dangerous coping mechanism that people develop and fall prey to.
I’ve also failed to mention that with all this diversity comes tension. Tension between each individual group that strives to integrate and have hope for a better tomorrow and those that choose the isolation maintaining a distance from being known. When no one knows your story and struggle who’s to empathize? Who’s to tell your tale? Isn’t that what life is about? Knowing and being known?
Here in Fairbanks is an incredibly thriving community seeking to develop reconciliation in some of the most difficult circumstances. The church strives to be a light in the dark because they truly are an outpost in a very real frontier. “City set on a hill” takes on a new meaning when the illumination of your twilight hours brings hope to a traveler seeking asylum. In all this you have Joel’s Place, a thriving group that is at the edge of transformation for a lost youth seeking a place to belong to. Like a lighthouse offering safe passage for a community tossed by the tundra of addiction and clashing cultures. A place where you can run away from the abuses at home. A place where people want you to feel safe. A place where you’re fed and taken care of. A place where your story is told.
During this trip I hope to tell you their story piece by piece.

Easter: Heaven's Long Con

Satan stood at the foot of the cross, shaking his head at his brilliance.  His anticipation grew with every passing moment...what would happen next?

The Holy One hung from the tree, bloodied and battered.  His final moments on this earth were to be spent in suffering as he was killed by the very ones whom He had come to save.  The Deceiver moved among the crowd, drinking in the mixture of shock and anger and fear and disappointment and hopelessness that hung on the spectators.

"It was destined to end this way, you know," he called out to the Holy One.  The beaten face slowly turned to look Satan in the eye.  "You never had a chance to save these people.  This," he spread his arms wide, "is my realm.  I decide what happens here.  Who profits.  Who loses.  Who goes to war and who has peace.  Who lives," Satan raised an eyebrow and returned the Holy One's stare, "and who dies."  The Deceiver noticed a small band of soldiers and slowly walked over to them.  "You see," he continued as a smile spread across his face, " when you all created these poor creatures, you gave them the power to choose...but not the power to see." 

He came up behind one of the soldiers and whispered, "The clothing of the King of the Jews...I bet that will be worth something.  Why not claim it?"  He turned and walked back toward the cross as the soldiers began gambling for the Holy One's garments.

"They can't see me!  They can't even see you...at least not who you really are!" Satan ran his finger along the foreheads of the men and women in the crowd as he slowly made his way to the dying man.  "Oh...but they can hear me.  And they want things and I am very good at telling them how to get what their petty little hearts want.  It's like you made them to become mine!"

Satan reached the cross and leaned on it, eyes closing as his head rested on the wood.  "You made me work for this one, though.  I will give you credit for that.  This was significantly harder than those prophets that you used to send."  He smiled again, savoring the victory.  "Do you know how hard it was to arrange all this when you kept feeding people and healing people?  Fulfilling prophecy and raising the dead?  Come on...it would take a master tactician to be able to manipulate enough events to defeat that movement.  To guide you on a path that ended up in an entire mob chanting for your death?  Betrayed by one of your closest friends?  No one can pull that many strings,"  His eyes snapped open, glistening, "Except me."

Satan looked up at his victim, gasping and groaning as He approached the end.  "No rebuttal?  No Holy Scriptures to quote?  No Divine Revelations?  Hmmm, disappointing.  Let's go check on your friends, shall we?"

The Holy One was hung in between two other criminals.  The dark chains of Sin hung across their torsos, ready to pull their souls down to Hell once their bodies released them.  Their names were as insignificant as their lives had been.  These two souls would be added to the millions that he already possessed...the central piece in his plan to defeat the Creator.

"What you have never understood," Satan called back to the Unchained One, "Is that humans only see what they want to see.  They see the here and now.  They see the physical and tangible.  They see what they want and what stands in their way.  They do not look around themselves and see souls that mirror the Divine.  They look around themselves and see obstacles to profit and pleasures to be conquered and wrongs to be avenged.  You came preaching a new kingdom.  They don't want a kingdom that brings peace!  They want a kingdom that brings them power!  They want control over their lives and you and the Creator simply get in their way!"

One of the other prisoners happened to call out to the Holy One at that moment.  "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!"  The Crucified King turned and told him, "Today you will join me in paradise."

Satan exploded.  "You fool!" he cried at the prisoner, "You see these chains!"  He grabbed the bindings and gave a firm tug.  "These mark you as mine!  You will never get so much as a glimpse of paradise!  This Lord of yours has wasted his years here in my realm to try to save you pathetic beings.  But he failed, and you are mine!  Weren't you paying attention to his cute little stories?  He said a landowner went away and sent messengers back to collect from his land.  The messengers were killed.  I killed them!  Then he sent his son...and his son was killed!  Guess what I'm doing now?  After that the "landowner" attacked his vineyard and there was a great battle.  Don't you see?  When I kill this wretched excuse for a man, he is returning to heaven as a failure and the Creator is going to have to come down here and try to retake this realm!"  Satan ran to face the Holy One, pointing a finger up into His face.  "But I have a secret weapon.  Millions of them actually.  Go back to where you came from and tell your "Father" that I have His beloved children under my control!  If He attacks me, He will have to kill every single one of those precious souls to get to me and everything He has ever wanted will die too.  You go back home with this message, Son of Man: Earth is now and forever off-limits!  It is mine!  Go find somewhere else in that great big cosmos to play god!  I have won!  Do you hear me?  I HAVE WON!" 

The eyes were what Satan noticed first.  The eyes that had been glazed over in agony sharpened in an instant.  The face that was smeared with dirt, sweat and blood clenched its jaw as the Holy One drew himself up.  For a split second His mouth turned up into a smile before he yelled, "It is Finished!"  The eyes behind that fierce gaze closed and Jesus breathed his last.

Satan let out a breath that he did not even know he had been holding.  It was over.  Satan turned to leave.  All that was left was for the body to release the soul to the heavens and then to see how the Creator responded to his ultimatum.  A flash of movement caught his eye.

The Deceiver froze, his mind unable to comprehend what he was seeing.  The dark-as-night chains that had been draped across the other prisoner were gone and now hanging on the Holy One's still form.  The chain from the third prisoner flew off and circled around His legs.  Satan watched in horror as chains began flying from the crowd and wrapping about the prone figure.  Soon there were countless streaks of darkness emerging through the ground and streaking through the sky, thoroughly burying the Holy One.  The cross now held an enormous cocoon of chains, more than Satan could count.

"No!"  The Deceiver ran towards the cross.  "No no no no no!  What have you done?"

Slowly the cocoon began to descend from the cross.  The physical body was releasing the soul, now  bound by these supernatural chains, and it was now sinking into the earth destined for Hell.

"No!  You can't go there!  That realm is reserved for those who have been separated from the Creator!  You can't be separated...you are a One with Him!"  For the first time in history, Satan felt fear.  Dread alternated with disbelief as he tried to figure out what was happening and how to regain control of the situation. 

Satan raced ahead, marshaling all his forces to assemble in the receiving chamber.  Newly acquired souls were brought here first for processing.  It was completely dark and quiet, save for the echoes of screams that carried from other areas.  The mass of chains came to rest in the center of the room.  Satan and his angels surrounded the invader, weapons drawn.  Silence hung in the air as Hell waited.  The cocoon twitched.  A slight movement became an unmistakable shaking.  The surrounding angels took a step backwards as a rumble began to be heard.  The chains trembled and cracked; the rumble grew into a roar.  Suddenly everything stopped...there was no sign of movement...no whisper of noise.

The pile of chains erupted in a blinding explosion of light and sound, knocking Satan's entire army to the ground.  The entire chamber was filled with a blazing sun.  From the dirt the Deceiver squinted and shielded his eyes, making out the form of a man in the middle of the inferno.  This was not the broken and bloodied form he had mocked only moments ago.  This was power and strength personified, the Light of Creation, the Word of the Almighty.  "Now," His voice echoed for all to hear, "It is my turn."  The Holy One was unleashed upon Hell.

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This was not the first confrontation between these two.  After Jesus' baptism he spent a month in the wilderness.  Satan came to tempt the Incarnation and, failing in his mission, left Jesus.  After his departure, Jesus was joined by angels who ministered to him.  "So.  That is the enemy."

"Yes, my Lord.  The Deceiver has taken millions of souls captive over the years.  The gates to his realm are well defended and he knows that we will not dare an assault that would result in the deaths of so many lost ones." The angel bowed its head, "I do not see how we can rescue those hostages without sacrificing the living.  Satan will never open his kingdom for you without a substantial offering in return."

Jesus smiled and shook his head.  "There will be a substantial offering...but not as he is expecting.  We are not going through the front gates.  We are not going to sacrifice the hostages.  Satan himself will escort me into the heart of his realm and then watch helplessly as I bring all the lost souls out with me.  Don't you see?   I am going to break down the gates of Hell...but from the inside."

"But my Lord, why would he welcome you in?"

"People will see what they want to see."  Jesus gave a small laugh as they began walking out of the wilderness.  "The enemy believes we are setting up to have an enormous battle for this planet.  He believes that we are battling over who gets to control humanity, because that is what he would do.  He expects that I will gather forces and he will gather forces...that if he can win the day that my Father will be forced to either wipe out everything or go somewhere else and start over."  His eyes narrowed in determination. "I am not here to win the day or the year, or even this generation.  I am here to win eternity...and he is going to help me do it."

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The Deceiver wandered aimlessly, stunned and uncomprehending.  The Holy One had torn through everything he had.  Death broken.  His angels scattered.  His fortress ruined.  Every time he came across one of the captive lost souls, the Holy One had knelt down and removed their restraints...gently uncovered their eyes...called them by name and invited them to freedom.  Once they said yes he resumed his rampage against Satan's forces.  For days he did this and there was nothing the Deceiver had been able to do to stop Him. 

He came to an abrupt stop, shocked at where his feet had brought him.  Satan stood at the mouth of the empty tomb, shaking his head in disbelief.  His panic grew with every passing moment.  What would happen next?