Arise, shine!

I went to visit one of the families which we reach out to with our bread distribution this morning.  The actual guy with whom I wanted to catch up wasn't at home, so I decided to help one of his kids with his Primary 1 mathematics homework.  I very quickly got worried because it was quite apparent that he could not read.  When you can't read English, you have a massive problem - you can't understand what the maths question is asking you.  So what was supposed to be maths homework evolved into a lesson on phonics (for the kid) and patience (for me)!

I've blogged about this before, but this is where the role of our education system as the great leveler, and facilitator of social mobility is being undermined by our expanding GINI co-efficient.  The better-off can afford tuition.  The poor cannot.  Our teachers are in a dilemma, because they have to cater for the kids who have already been tutored and will be bored by the basics, as well as the kids who have no grasp of the basics at all. 


Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to this conundrum.  All I can see are the consequences on the ground in reinforcing the poverty cycle, and consequential disgruntlement with the establishment.  But I do have a suggestion.  Our policymakers need to be keenly aware of the problem, and must be personally committed to do the dirty work required to improve the situation.  Get your hands dirty!!  Like it or not, most policymakers are prosperous, can afford tuition, and have successful children.  In order to understand and help the marginalised, they absolutely need to spend significant time on the ground with the marginalized, to see that these are real people, with real problems, not just statistics.  Reading a smart young scholar's white paper in an air-conditioned office is still necessary, but it won't be enough to do the job, especially if that young scholar is also not on the ground, and being smart, on the cusp of prosperity and likely the beneficiary of solid tuition in his schooling days, is the antithesis of the very people he purports to help.  I know this will help.  Because I thought I understood what was happening from newspapers etc.  But I realized I didn't understand at all when I started working on the ground.  Let's pray for our policymakers that God will grant them wisdom and compassion to get on the ground to navigate this very tricky issue!

On a personal level, I must confess that I got a little grumpy about spending most of the morning teaching phonics, because I knew my own son was at home struggling with his own homework.  I know my wife was also getting grumpy.  It wasn't helped by a massive Saturday morning traffic jam (ironically caused by parents trying to pick up kids from tuition (!!) at a mall next to my home) which delayed my return.  So I'm thankful that while I was in the car, God sternly reminded me that I have nothing to grumble about:

... Then the King will say... 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance... for I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in in prison and you came to visit me. 

Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

[and to those others the King will say] 'Truly I tell you, what you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me'  Matt 25:34-40, 45

God's word says, "From everyone who has been given much, much will be expected." Luke 12:48.  Or as Spiderman knows, with great power comes great responsibility.  If you are reading this, you probably have a smartphone, and you probably have enough leisure time to even read my blog.  This suggests something.  We may grumble, we may complain.  We may forget our blessings.  We may forget that we have been given much.  But God will hold us accountable - will we be the good and faithful servants that He has called us to be?  Will we accept the joyful charge of walking in His plan - the best place we could be?  Will we pick ourselves off the couch, and say "No!" to our imagined weaknesses and inadequacies, busy-ness and burdens?  Will we stop our self-obsession and navel-gazing, and start to take charge to bless the people and places that God has entrusted to us?  This weekend, let's start to wake up - He who is more than able is in us!

But everything exposed by the light becomes visible - and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.  This is why it is said:
"Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
Be very careful then, how you live, not as unwise but as wise...
Ephesians 5:13-15

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