Recently we had the blessing of being at a family camp and our week consisted of families who have or currently have kids with cancer. Wow. Amazing. Since I've been home it's been hard to get back to life in Frisco. Not for the typical, " I want to still be on vacation" reasons. My reasons were deeper than that. We met some incredible families. Families that as you might have guessed had some crappy things going on. Not once during the week did we chat about the Vera Bradley store going in at Stonebriar. Not once did anyone mention they couldn't find just that perfect shade of green to go with their curtains. These people had much bigger issues going on. They didn't have time or likely energy to worry about such trivial things.
Tonight I mentioned to a few ladies that Frisco is too Mayberry. As I looked at their visibly shocked faces it hit me why I detest the Mayberry-ness of our town. Mayberry is vanilla. Plain, boring, routine. We go day to day worrying about our silliness that we forget there is a hurting and dying world not 30 miles from here.
We forget that not even 2 miles down the road folks are going hungry as we sip our $5 lattes.
I am including myself in the worries of the mundane. Someone recently said to me I needed to come back to earth and be thinking about Weir, TX. Weird. I've never been told to think about my own family and it made me want to scream.
I've written about this before but going down to Dallas weekly for awhile opened my eyes. I had been trapped in Mayberry for 6 years thinking only of our family and what schooling to give my children,gosh, should we public school or home school? Will they be too unsocial? Will they be made fun of because they don't play sports? Um, yep and yep. When we lived in Ca hurting and needy people were everywhere. There was always a homeless person outside of Trader Joe's, or at least in the back. You could count on the guy selling oranges and the end of the freeway ramp. I miss his oranges... *sigh*
When I worked in Santa Monica there was a homeless man who lived literally on our doorstep. No one shooed him away, we gave him lunches and dinners. Money, whatever we could.
So the shootings. While I'm not excited that there is seemingly random violence in our town, I am excited that the yuck of the world has found it's way to Frisco. I'm excited that there might be drug dealers in our community that we can reach out to, who need to know there is Someone who loves them and longs for them to know Him. I'm excited to think there would be things that happen in our community that would stretch us and grow us. I'm not just talking about bringing a meal when bad news comes from the doctor.
I understand many would want it to just go away. I get that. Feeling safe is nice. It's well, safe. BUT, personal growth never happens when we're feeling safe. We can never look past our own fancy pants to see needs of others if we're comfortable. At least I can't.
A year ago I was fretting about how I was going to survive 10 days without my husband with my 4 rugrats while he traipsed off to Russia. Now I look back and think how sad and selfish. How sad that I would not long to have some sweet time with my people and how selfish that I would even think of not wanting Marck to serve Russia and love on those people.
Mayberry, a place to raise your family in utter safety without a hint of ugliness. However, I have learned that in Mayberry there's a huge focus on safety and comfort. I long to have Weir,TX focused on character development and others who are in need.
