What Keeps Me Going (Part 2)

For awhile I've been having some struggles with my call to be here. Those close to me have heard most about it and are probably sick of it by now. For reasons I don't totally understand, I've been taken over by poverty-- a poverty of faith and hope in what ASP is really capable of. Because of this I've spent a lot of time thinking not about why I was called here to begin with, but why I, amidst all the negativity, feel called to stay.

Here are a few reasons:

Though we can't do much about the 27% of adults in the county who can't read ...

... or the county's ranking for most meth-related deaths of any county in the nation (2 per month) ... 

... or that the couple pictured above have been denied custody of their grandchildren and have to drive 2 hours away once a week to play with them at a park for 1 hour ...

... or that 13.8% of adults in the county haven't finished high school and only 4.8% have obtained a college degree ...

... we can make warmer, safer and drier places for families to have a place to prioritize education, health, jobs, etc.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Need, something I was taught by my high school english teacher, has become an integral part of my understanding of society. The pyramid-shaped figure explains that some needs are required by all humans to be met, in an exact order, before the final option of transcendence and enlightenment. The first are basic needs, such as food, water, sleep, etc. The second thing is safety, which is where ASP comes in--we can create environments that make people feel safe and warm and secure. Some people say that poverty is a symptom of laziness, that people don't fix their homes because they don't want to do the work. This is entirely untrue and Maslow tells us why: people don't think to fix their homes because they're still stuck on level one, just trying to meet basic needs. They aren't lazy, they just have other priorities. So ASP does not enable people to be lazy, we enable people to move up through the hierarchy and free up some of their time and resources to be spent making their lives better. I think most volunteers understand this idea about ASP, but there's another part that most people forget which is that we provide the third level to people as well-- acceptance. The unconditional and radical love we provide to people who perhaps haven't had the chance to seek that out for themselves is an incredible gift. I feel blessed to work for an organization that allows me to be a part of so many amazing life changes and I hope that I never forget that again.

Of course, hanging out with a pile of puppies is a pretty great part of my job, too.

"Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you." Psalms 63:3