Glow Sticks or Luxury Cars?

For over a year I have been torn, I know I am in need of my next car, but I cannot decide what new car I should lease.  The Lexus ES is absolutely pristine, and I look awesome driving it.  You don't feel like your driving a car, but instead a top of the line, five star hotel.  After driving the ES and returning my Honda Accord 2002, I felt like the quality of the interior of the car I owed was no better than a go-kart.  The problem is the cost is restrictive.   I can afford the increased lease, because Toyota offers great rates to their employees, but I would be confined to actually keeping & maintaining a budget.  I could also lease a Camry, but isn't that a little too cliche?  Don't a lot of (old) people already drive this car?   I wouldn't really impress anyone, and I would still have to be cautious with a budget, because not only would I be paying for a car, but also a house.

Don't get me wrong, I am blessed enough financially, where when I broke my iPad, I bought a new one that night.  When I lost my cell phone (read my first blog post for the details), I bought a new one the first chance I could.  Then I think back to life in Haiti where we were taught that the people of Haiti live off less than $1 a day!   Shoot... I bought 2 Coca Colas each & everyday we were there last year.   

I don't think this makes me a bad person, but I couldn't survive the life Haitians have to live.   I "need" my iPhone, my iPad, my Coca Cola, and my choice of a vehicle.  For whatever reason, I wasn't destined to live that life.  In more ways then I take the time to realize, I am blessed beyond my imagination.  Did you hear when I said I don't have to keep budget?   It is not like I travel to London or Paris once a month, but I get to live a satisfying enough lifestyle where I get everything I need (food and water) and everything I want (shelter, new clothes, phone, car, etc).  

Last July in Haiti, our most creative VBS night was a party to celebrate Jesus.  Throughout the week, we had given the kids noise makers and played American games like dodgeball (fun to watch, but playing any game with Haitians other than soccer, which in an organized league with better training they would destroy us at, is a futile activity). 

This night, however, we gave the children glow sticks.  We decided to line the kids up and translated to them that one at time they could have one, and only one, glow stick.  Well, of course, chaos burst loose and the kids crowded around our leaders desperate for their glow stick.  Now let me stop and say, this reaction isn't Haitian.  Have you ever brought candy into a classroom of middle school guys?  If you don't give them the candy soon enough, you will be mobbed.  So we were quickly handing out the glow sticks, one after another after another while the kids were smiling and so proud of the gift they had been given.  

Quicker then we expected, we ran out of our supply of glow sticks.  It was at that time, one of the boys I knew pulled at my sleeve and motioned that he didn't have a glow stick.   The face he gave me was priceless.  I could see how much he wanted to be like everyone else and have a glow stick.  I wanted more than anything to find that boy a glow stick.  First, I am a pushover, a sap to youth who want something from me.  Ask my small group, and you will learn giving gifts (like free Burger King) makes me happy.  Second, I felt he deserved it, here was a boy who probably never seen a glow stick before.   I wanted to give something, incredibly simple & meaningless, that he just didn't get to have.  

It was brought to my attention that older teenagers made off with multiple bracelets, so I became the bracelet bouncer.  We walked around that dusty soccer field trying to find a teen with more than one bracelet.  I looked at kid after kid, and I finally found one.  I motioned to him to give me a bracelet.  He rejected.  Again, don't think of this as Haitian, an American teenager would be just as competitive to keep what he thought he earned even if it valued less than a nickel.   I motioned sternly to the teen to my friend without a bracelet.  He finally relented and gave me that bracelet.

Immediately after, I handed it to the Haitian boy.  A smile illuminated from his face.  He was so gracious to me.  This boy was the one who bragged to me, quite arrogantly, that he could count to ten in Creole, French, and English, but it was this time he attempted to thank me (in English) and either shake my hand or give me a hug.   

You see this moment was incredibly simple, but it had substance.  I do believe this boy's glow stick busted within a week after we left.   I do believe this boy forgot about the glow stick.  What I don't know is when I see the boy in Haiti, will he remember my gracious, yet simple, action for him?  Honestly, I think he will.

Here's the point, as I debate between this car or that car, I will eventually get a car and will love my new car, but in a week, it won't be a new car, it will be another possession of mine.  The question isn't if I treat my car like a gift, waxing and cleaning it daily, but that I'm gracious in the gift I was given.   The blessing of a family that care for me and worked for me.  The blessing of ability to gain employment.  The blessing of a company that treats their employees with respect.  

It is my honest hope that my passion shines through in everything I do.   I want to be seen as someone with a Heart for Haiti who lives by why he wants to build the La Coma church so badly.  So I ask and the question remains... when a stranger sees me in this world, do they see someone shining graciously like a child with a glow stick or someone lost in his own accomplishments deserving of a fancy, new Lexus?.............................