The Odds of Helping Someone

So whenever it comes time to write a blog, I always seem to have trouble figuring out what I want to write about. I think it might be the pressure of having to find something to write about. The strange thing is that usually about the time when I’m sitting down to write the blog something happens that I want to write about, and this happened yesterday when I was about to leave work. A lady came in and just wanted to thank me for helping her find shelter over the winter. She told me that she was able to save her money and because of that, and she now has a place. I was pretty caught off guard because I see a lot more failures then I do successes. To be able to see that one person make it made my day.

I’ve found that the odds of helping someone to change themselves for the better are not very good. I see a lot of the same people come through the doors of St. Vincent de Paul day after day. After having worked here for 8 months now it’s sometimes hard to see what has changed for the better, and on the whole I don’t think much has changed for the better. I still see people struggling with addiction, I still see people without homes and sleeping on the street, and I still see people with a hopeless look in their eyes. But I’ve come to realize that if just one person is living better because of the work I’ve done or the services of St. Vincent de Paul it’s worth it. All of the heartache I’ve seen is worth the one glimpse of success. Just the knowing that it is possible for someone to live a better life gives me hope.

When I first started JVC and working for St. Vincent I wanted to start a revolution. I wanted to light fire to injustice and poverty. I thought I was going to change the world from right here in Oakland. I didn’t realize that the very tiny changes and small successes were going to be the things I remembered. San Pablo Ave. is still San Pablo Ave. whether I’m here or not. I didn’t really do anything to clean up the streets. There is still drug use, prostitution and homelessness and I’m sure there will be for many years to come. However I was a witness to the ability of people to make changes for their own lives.

The funny thing I realized was that I really didn’t have to do anything about the problems here. I only had to see the problems, and see that it was possible for people to help themselves. I heard a quote recently by a spiritual teacher that said “there are only limitations in the world so they can be challenged, and there are only struggles in the world so they can be overcome.” Struggle, limits, and pain all have their right place in the world and they aren’t wrong. When I first came out here I wanted to take that all away from the people I saw out here. I wanted to do something for them to make it stop, but all I was supposed to see was that; yes there are people struggling and in pain and to be with them in that, is all that is needed. No changes are necessary, as bad as it all looks there is a purpose for it. So I want to thank God for heartache, pain, and struggle. It makes for a good teacher.