15 Apr, 2009
Not Enough Resources
Giving Lessons in Traffic Safety at Middle Schools
LOS ANGELES — At 2:58 each weekday afternoon, the adults brace for traffic chaos at Florence Nightingale Middle School. The bell sounds, and children dash to the left and right. Some bounce basketballs as they make their way to waiting cars — some parked illegally — backpacks swing perilously from side to side, and many pile into Metro buses idling two lanes deep. School administrators in bright orange vests move their charges gingerly through a crosswalk as the children try to hurl themselves toward burger joints across the street.
Among the many worries of Los Angeles parents who pack their children off to school each day, traffic dangers have been looming larger in recent years.
The number of serious traffic incidents involving schoolchildren in L.A. public schools has significantly increased, particularly around middle schools, which are not staffed by crossing guards, school administrators and law enforcement officials say. Last year, two eighth-grade girls in Wilmington were hit by vehicles near school, and one girl was left partly paralyzed. The traffic dangers have become so widespread that the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office will soon begin training parents for volunteer traffic control and safety duty.
“The problem is that there are not enough resources,” said Michelle McGinnis, a prosecutor in the office. “And those resources are diminishing.” Financing for crossing guards has decreased steadily over 15 years, and there is a lack of applicants for the jobs, school district officials said.
story & photo courtesy of - nytimes.com
"Then Jesus made a circuit of all the towns and villages. He taught in their meeting places, reported kingdom news, and healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives. When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke. So confused and aimless they were, like sheep with no shepherd. "What a huge harvest!" he said to his disciples. "How few workers! On your knees and pray for harvest hands!"
What does today's God's Story scripture teach us about resources?
Do you ever feel like your working for something all by yourself? Do you ever feel like you're the only one that cares enough to "do the little things" or "go the extra mile" to help people out? I bet the school teachers and administrators that direct the tide of pedestrian traffic in and out of school everyday feel like they're all alone in their struggle for safe schools, and I bet Jesus felt the same way when he traveled through Israel confronting all of the sickness, pain, and spiritual emptiness in the lives of the people he met.
The question is, why aren't there more people joining the school administrators in their struggle to ensure safe streets and parking lots, and why aren't more people joining Jesus in his struggle to heal the sick, comfort the broken hearted, and proclaim the good news of the Kingdom.
I think we find our answer in Jesus' response to the people he encountered: "When he looked out over the crowds, his heart broke."
When we look at crowds of people do we see the pain of a world lost in a maze of materialism, depression, and violence, or have our hearts become hardened? I think today's story and today's scripture teach us that we are prone to hardening our hearts to the needs of others.
Ultimately, Jesus' compassionate heart for the people he met was a direct result of his intimate connection to the Father. So our lesson today is, as we know the Compassionate One, we will know compassion, and when we fill our hearts with the resource of compassion, we will be a resource to the Kingdom of God.
- If your heart has become hardened and it no longer breaks when you encounter people in pain, ask God for the vision to see people like Jesus sees them.
- Next time you're at a Campus Life meeting or youth group event ask your leaders if you can be a resource for them.
- Sit down with your Campus Life director or youth pastor and identify what resources God has given you so that you can be a resource for the Kingdom.
- Ask a friend, "what makes your heart break?"
- Tell a fried what made Jesus' heart break.
- Encourage a friend that God has given them resources to make a difference with their lives.
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