A while back I was watching "Animal Planet"...a channel I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I really enjoy watching. I'll never forget the time my roommate came home to me sobbing on the couch because the episode of "Animal Cops"that I was watching had just rescued a bunch of kittens or puppies or ponies or something else adorable and helpless from a horrible, abusive owner. But I digress....
I don't really know what show I was watching, but I tuned in just as some people in a boat out in the ocean who had just come upon a seal that had been attacked by a shark. The seal was still alive, and the shark was prowling nearby, waiting to finish it off. Out of compassion for the seal, the people in the boat caught it, and then hauled it in, in order to save it from the shark. (Aside: it kind of irked me that they did this. Food chain, people, food chain. Sharks eat seals, and that's okay.)
Anyway, the seal rescuers steer the boat toward land, and off-load the seal, indicating that, although the seal was severely injured, it would survive. And the seal was injured very badly. You could see the horrible gash the shark made all down its side, and the bottom of the boat was covered in the seal's blood. The reason why the seal's rescuers were confident that the seal would live, however, was that the shark's teeth hadn't injured any of the animal's vital organs. Although the gash was long and deep, it was only through the seal's thick layer of blubber. It was this blubber that not only kept the seal warm in the cold water, but also protected it from mortal injury.
I do have a point to all this...
Oddly enough, this got me thinking about people who live in severe poverty. In my line of work, hardly a day goes by when I don't hear about a person who becomes homeless because they lost their job, couldn't pay rent, got evicted, and had no money or support networks to fall back on. This then got me thinking about what a severe lack of a buffer so many people have between themselves and homelessness.
So many people in the city live paycheck to paycheck, with no margin left to save for emergencies. They're so far from being able to do the Dave Ramsey plan that they're like on Baby Step negative 10. There are probably many, many reasons they find themselves in that situation...but that's not really what troubles me. What really troubles me is not that people live paycheck to paycheck and have no emergency fund, it's that when they find themselves in a tough spot, they don't have any kind of healthy social network to fall back on, and to lean in to. They have no buffer (blubber) and therefore their vital organs get attacked and they're left in a perilous situation.
There are myriad of reasons why a person may find him/herself without a "social network" buffer. Maybe family relationships are broken due to abuse, or alcoholism, or mental illness. Maybe those close to the person are themselves living paycheck-to-paycheck and just can't afford to help. Maybe violence and revenge has torn relationships apart. Maybe too many bridges have been burned in the past and the help just isn't there. Maybe its just plan ol' sin rearing its ugly head again. Whatever it is, it just makes me sad.
Lately I feel myself turning more and more to the Lord in gratitude for the immense blessings He has given me in the "buffer" I have in my friends and family. Not that they're all fabulously wealthy and would help me out in a tight financial spot, but rather in knowing that they will always be there to love and support me whatever happens (provided, of course, that these relationships are nurtured and cared for). I am reminded too, to consider the ways He is asking me to act as a buffer for others.
Just as our Father above designed the seal to have a layer of blubber to protect it from serious harm, so too I believe He gave us community and relationships to help each other in our times of trial and struggles, and to protect each other the evils and perils of this fallen world.
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