McMahon Life

Fall has officially arrived, announcing itself not only be incredible color but by torrents or rain that will last for a while before tapering off into standard Seattle winter drizzle.  Five months and counting.  That’s how long we’ve been at the Bluffs.  We moved in May 19th.  Crazy.  So much has happened that it could easily feel way longer.

A few weeks ago a homegroup from our church came up and put on a carnival for the kids in our neighborhood.  It was pooring rain (the one day that week it rained of course), but there were still almost 60 kids out having fun!  After the carnival about 30 of them came back to our house to watch a short cartoon and eat some popcorn.  We kept getting asked by amazed faces did you guys do this?! We told them our friends did, and they kept saying, you guys are so cool! And we didn’t even do anything.  Thank you to all who came up and put it on – you did all the work and you made us look so good without doing anything!  Perhaps the greatest outcome of the carnival was a mom we had never met (though 2 of her 3 boys are at our house all the time) came into our house to watch the movie with us.  In any other context there is little chance she would have come into our home, but this was a safe context, and it allowed us to make a connection and begin a relationship with her!  So cool.

The novelty of the Michelle and Brian have long since worn off and life has taken a much more methodical style. Mondays: date day; Tuesdays: homework club; Wednesdays: The Young @ Mill Creek Foursquare; Saturdays: family night; Sundays: @ Mill Creek Foursquare.
Tuesdays we’re at homework club after school from which the kids all follow us home and hang out until we kick them out for dinner. They always come back after if we let them.  One of the boundaries we’ve established is a protection around our dinner time as a family – no phone calls, no text messages, and no kids that don’t belong to us (my brother who is now living with us gets to stay:]).  I’m still learning to abide by these boundaries!

Last Tuesday Emilio came into homework club and handed me a set of childrens’ books.  I looked at him and asked him, “you want me to hold onto these for you?” He answered, “No, those are for you.” I was so confused and asked him what he meant.  He explained to us that he had told his teacher about us, how he comes to our house to do his homework and read some of the books we have, and she wanted to help our “library”, so she gave us a set of books!  How cool is that!?!? We’ve never met this teacher, yet she has blessed us incredibly.  And what an honor to be such a part of a child’s life that he tells his teacher at school about us!  Wow.  God is so good.

Speaking of God being good, so are his people!  We had an opportunity to share about what we are doing at church a couple weeks ago, and have been blessed by the response of our community.  The Goertz family donated about 60 books and 30 matchbox cars.  The cars have now replaced the LEGOs as the favorite toy, and the books allowed us to officially open our “library”!  It was a beautiul thing.  Eight students followed us back from homework club and their eyes expanded upon seeing all the new books!  an we read them!? They all wanted to know.  I told them better than that, they can even borrow them!  Like a library? one of them asked me.  Absolutely.  The spent the next twenty minutes going through all the books and finding ones they could read – I had to use the “five-finger-rule” with a few of them to get an appropriate book (if there are more than 5 words on a page they can’t read it’s probably too hard for fun reading).  We have a little notebook in which they write down their name, the name ofthe book, and the date they borrowed it.  They can get a second book after we’ve checked off the return of their first book.  Two sixth grade boys asked me with excited faces, “Can we be library helpers?  Can we organize the books for you?“  Absolutely, are you kidding me! So now,almost daily, we have students returning a book and getting another.

Sometimes now that life has become more methodical I begin to think that we are doing less, that our impact is lessening, that we should be doing more.  Then something happens like Emilio bringing us books from his teacher that remind us that we are living intentionally present, that we are caring about the kids and they know it, and we are having an impact.  Maybe we could do more.  Maybe we could be more intentional about getting to know more adults.  Maybe.  Life is hard when it’s busy – and it’s hard to make more time for community, eh?  We too struggle with this.  The most common feeling we have is that Michelle and I do not have enough time for each other.  So sometimes we kick the kids out, close the blinds, and play games or talk – just the two of us.  Living in community is not about burning out.  But it is about making a difference, no matter how big.

God has blessed us immeasurably the past five months.  The children have brought great joy (and weariness at times) to us, and our community has supported and encouraged us.  I doubt we will ever be content to live any other way.  The greatest part of constantly allowing the love of God to flow out of us is that we are constantly encountering new love of God flowing into us.  His mercies are truly new every morning.

So, there’s a little update.  Thank you all so much who have been a part of what God has done in our neighborhood – big and small!   May God’s love be present in your neighborhood through you.

I don’t think every generation deals with the same problems and issues. I mean, the generations that grew up during the depression and WWII deal with lack of emotional expression and are driven by working hard and making sure everything is taken care of. The next generations, who grew up during the 1960’s and 70’s deal with the inability to trust government through the Vietnam war and President Nixon’s mistake. And I think this present generation, those 30 and under deal with a totally different issue. We think we are entitled to anything and everything. We think that we shouldn’t really have to work that hard to get the things in which our parents and grandparents worked so hard for.

The technological age and advanced science has brought the reality that the entire world is accessible to us. If we want something from another country we can buy it online and have it shipped directly to us within a week. If we want to go to Africa, it is just a plane ride away. We are so impatient when things take time. I’ll be honest, I was on a computer that was 5 years old and was complaining about how slow it is. I wanted it to be fast! Many just graduating from high school have the mentality of entitlement that spurred this overall thought. I know many that don’t have a job, don’t go to school, live with their parents and do not pay them anything for food, rent, gas or insurance and feel burdened by the idea of helping out around the house. We think we should have everything without giving anything.  I’ll admit, I at times felt that it was my parent’s responsibility to pay for my college education, in which I was totally wrong. Mom and Dad, forgive me.

Even young kids today, unless trained well, believe that they should have anything they want if they just ask. The interaction that I have with the kids at the Bluffs is so often one of entitlement in the small ways. Most of the time they pose a question, but the question is like, “I can play legos?” or “Can I have an otter pop?” with the facial expression of com’on, hurry up, just give it to me already. There have been other times when kids just open our freezer and grab things without asking. I know these interactions seem petty and insignificant, but it is a small reflection of the sense of entitlement, like we owe them a snack. We have to train them to ask nicely and to wait patiently.

Our current generation has either forgotten or has not been taught that everything we have is a gift. We need to be reminded of how people have sacrificed for us in order for us to be where we are today.  This is not only true in the material possessions that we have but also true with our walk with God. If we don’t know what discipline or hard work looks like, then we will be abruptly surprised that having a relationship with God or following Jesus is not easy.  FYI, I am making generalizations here and this is not an accurate portrayal of all in our generation. Yet, I feel we all feel this way even if just in the small ways.

Kids need to be kids, yes. But there is a crucial element of teaching kids discipline and making them work for something instead of just handing it to them. I appreciate the work that my parents made me do when I was a kid and I also realize how they let me off the hook sometimes in order to enjoy life without the responsibilities of an adult.

We feel entitled to much, to significantly too much. Much of our current generation is lazy. How do we fix that? Well, all I know is that much humility has to come in order for this problem to be fixed. I foresee many in our generation going broke or surrounding themselves with massive debt before they learn this lesson. I foresee many that will try to follow Jesus but will become easily discouraged and will either leave the faith or have one of no depth.