Living like a billionaire

Recently I was talking with a friend about what's better: having money or having friends that have money. I'm lucky enough to be part of the second group. I have friends who have awesome stuff that they share with me. From a meal to a double stroller, to a weekend at the lakehouse, these gifts are awesome.  They are not even things that I desperately need.  But they are things that make life more pleasant. And They are given in plenty.  They are given in love.  I certainly did not befriend these people so I could get stuff.  It's just a bonus of my natural friendship with them.  I think those gifts are more awesome than buying these special treats myself.  It seems like when I work hard for something (even in my job), I still complain that I didn't get paid enough for the effort put in.  How many times have I said to myself at work, "They do not pay me enough for this nonsense. "

As Americans, we believe that when we put in a lot of effort, we DESERVE to be compensated.  But what about when you get something for nothing?  That's an awesome,  unexpected, unearned gift.  Maybe you are one of those people who hates getting gifts because you feel like to have to reciprocate.  There are times that you don't have to or can't reciprocate.  Babies don't aren't forced to smile in compensation being fed. I don't have to beg my 4 year old for a hug when I get bck from work. She runs o the door every time. I can't always compensate others for the gifts that they give me, but I can give them a listening ear, the gift of time,  or a prayer for their family.  I give freely of those things, because it's what I have a lot of.  We all have different gifts to give and we want to receive different gifts from others.  Not all of those gifts can be found at the mall, or ebay or pinterest (SHOCKER!  I thought everything could be found on Pinterest!)

It reminds me of the gift of God's salvation.  What if God wanted us to work for our eternal life?  Would we ever feel like we did enough?  Or would we feel like we should get even more in return for the effort that we put in?  Would we feel like we have to give back?

Do we have to give back our time, our money, our thoughts, our prayers?  I don't think so.  God's gift cannot be earned.  He does not demand anything in return. I don't HAVE to give offering or pay tithe.  I do not HAVE to teach sabbath school or keep the sabbath faithfully.  I don't HAVE TO log in 7 hours of prayer or quiet time each week to feel like it was worth His effort.  God loves us and all He wants is for us to accept it. It's a special, unexpected, unearned, nonreciprocal gift, and it's worth billions.

Ooops, Did I offend you?

I've been thinking a lot about racism recently.  Did you know that brown people think about racism more than white people do?  It's true, if you've ever lived or even visited another country and been the minority, you might have noticed how much more AWARE that you are of your race and culture when you are around people who are different from  you.

So what's the different between racism and plain old cultural insensitivity?  Although I've grown up in a pretty diverse area, and haven't experienced much racism that I know of, I've been a victim of lots of cultural insensitivity.  Maybe you haven't thought about the difference between the two.  Let me try to explain.  (Some of these are made up examples, some have actually happened to me.)  

A waitress seating a brown family in the back of a restaurant, away from the white patrons - racism

A waitress scrunching her nose, when an Indian customer asks for hot sauce to use with her spaghetti, french fries, toast, etc... (I love hot sauce) - cultural insensitivity 

A classmate asking me if I was educated by the Christian Children's Fund  - hmmmn, racist or just rude? There may be some overlap here.

Someone looking at Eli's lunch of chappati and potato curry and saying "What's that? Gross!" - racist? culturally insensitive?  There are lots of gray areas, aren't there? 

Someone saying, " I think he's too brown to be the head of this committee." - racist

A photographer asking an Asian woman to "open her eyes" more when she smiled for a picture - culturally insensitive?  

Wow, this is hard.  I guess racism and cultural insensitivity should be taken in context.  But one thing in common with both, and is true in most any context, is that these comments are rude and can hurt people's feelings.  So what should we do about it?  When you hear or see someone being racist or culturally insensitive, should you speak up?   

I know it's hard to tell from my wordy blogs, but I am an introvert. Most of the time I don't speak up.  Unless its a close friend saying/doing something inappropriate, I let it go.  But if we (meaning ME) continue to let it go,, how is it ever going to change?  How are people going to know that what they are saying is rude to different cultural groups?  How are they going to become more AWARE?  

Much of the racism and/or cultural insensitivity that I've experienced has not been done maliciously.  But not being AWARE of your actions/words doesn't make it ok.  I think I'm gonna start to speak up more, in a nice way, just to point out and start dialogues about they way we speak about our cultural differences.  What do you think?  

ANGRY RANT!

Some of you out there don't know this, but THIS IS A TURN SIGNAL.  Say it with me "TURN SIGNAL."  It is connected to this: 

When I see this, I can slow down or change lanes if I want to go around your slow patootie.  But if you do not use your TURN SIGNAL, we might do this:

                                                                 CRASH!!!!

At worst, this may result in a loss of life.  At best, this is going to result in the loss of my last nerve.
 
Driver's ED 101 - USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL BEFORE YOU TURN.

I know, you are in a hurry.  Maybe you are confused and can't remember what that switch is for.  Maybe you are just cruisin' along, and think that you are the only driver on the road on route 29 during 5:00 rush hour.

But guess what?!  Even if you own the last car on earth, USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL!

If I can find 2 seconds to use my turn signal,
 while simultaneously finding a great song on the radio (that has no curse words in it),
        opening a juice box for my 4 year old,
               yelling at the other two kids to stop touching each other,
                       and reading my iphone to find my way to the Adventurer Fun Day,
you can do it to.

So use the brain that God put in that thick skull of yours,
remember the drivers ed class that you took 10, 20, 30+ years ago
and USE YOUR TURN SIGNAL!

And for goodness sakes, after you make your turn, turn that thing off!  
You people are driving me crazy!


* Sorry if this post is a bit angry, but you do remember that the title of the blog                                         is angrypastorswives, right?