This past Sunday we heard from Pastor John Park of Compassion Canada. He shared that he sponsors 4 children from 4 different countries with the goal of not only being a beacon of hope in their lives and providing tangible support but also that one day he would get a call saying that they no longer needed his support anymore.
This idea of receiving a call that the person you have been sponsoring no longer needs your help is bittersweet. It reminds me of when I used to work as an Educational Assistant for the school board.
Part of my job was to support Children/Youth with physical and/or cognitive disabilities in the classrooms and minimize their behavioral issues in order to help them function in a classroom setting. The goal of the job is not necessarily to support the students you work with for the rest of their lives. In fact, the goal, whether spoken or unspoken, is to actually work yourself out of a job. The goal was to support the child in their learning and give them tools and abilities to manage their behavioral issues so that they may one day be able to function and learn in a classroom independently. If you were good at your job, this would be a bittersweet process.
You would spend years supporting and helping a child develop in their learning and managing their behaviors while also building a relationship with them. The day that they can sit in a classroom, know what to do, and manage their behaviors in a safe and effective way, is the day you realize your job is coming to an end. On the one hand you are out of a job but on the other hand the child you’ve been supporting can now learn and function in the classroom because of all that you’ve taught them.
This must be what parents feel like when their children are all grown up and no longer need the same support as they once received because they now have the tools and abilities to be adults.
It reminds me of Purpose 2023: Kingdom Parenting when I felt God say “Feed a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he feeds his family for generations to come.” Perhaps our sponsorships and support to all those who are in need will have the same bittersweet feeling when they no longer need our “fish for the day” because they now know how to “fish for their families.”
My prayer for Lifespring is that we continue to support the children, widows, poor and needy etc., not just for the sake of supporting them but with the goal that one day we may receive a call saying they no longer need our support because they have all that they need to live the life God has called them to live.