The other night, I was watching one of my favorite shows on HGTV. It’s called Property Brothers.
In this show, twin brothers (one a general contractor, the other a real estate agent) work together to help people find their dream home. In the process, they are usually renovating some part of the current or new home.
Reality often crashes in on the heads of the people when the brothers talk about the costs associated with buying or renovating a home in their desired location.
The brothers usually start by showing them that their expectations exceed reality.
And, you can see it all over the people’s faces as their hopes of a better life begin to slip away.
There was one family on this particular night that was needing something more spacious for their two growing girls. The list of included requirements for the perfect house was quite long. One of the requirements was that they would be in the right school district. The others, of course, included a massive kitchen for entertaining, lots of storage space, a big yard, gorgeous master suite and on and on.
I love these shows. And, I love watching the brothers crush the hopes of these people, only to then make their dreams come true by turning some fixer-upper into their dream home.
But, I had trouble watching this one, even though it is for pure entertainment. This family picked apart some of the largest homes I’ve ever seen. These are homes that four or five families could live in and probably never bump into each other.
As I watched, I went back in my mind to this hallway in a Ukraine orphanage. Long, dark hallways.
Almost no light.
I asked this question to myself, “how much is enough” for us?
A study out last year by the Chronicle of Philanthropy (2012) came to an interesting conclusion about how the poor and rich compare in giving to charities. Most of us in this country are rich compared to the rest of the world. And, if we are not intentional, we tend to drift toward our own selfish desires.
It reminds me of how Jesus was always in the mix. He was among the poorest of the poor and He was their advocate. Makes me wonder how we’ve drifted so far from the example that was set for us over 2,000 years ago. Probably distracted.
If there is one thing that I really do love about an open concept home – There’s more light.
I think the church could use more of an open concept approach when it comes to orphan care. We are, after all, supposed to be bringing in the light. Just don’t lose sight of the realities that exist out there. It is a dark world.
Children like the one above in the picture don’t have a lot of expectations in life.
That needs to change, don’t you think?
Me too.
Steve Gillis Founder | Exec. Director www.patchourplanet.org
