"Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one"

Tim Keller, the pastor of my church in NYC, pointed out in a number of his sermons that we as Americans (and even more so as New Yorkers) embrace the ideals of individualism and the notion that the future is what we make of it; in short, that we are masters of our own destiny. He cited the quote in Back to the Future where Doc Brown tells Marty, "the future is whatever you make it; so make it a good one," characterizing our future as some sort of wholly pliable piece of clay for which we are the potters. The corollary to this kind of viewpoint is of course that if the outcome of one's life are not favorable, then we must have somehow screwed up somewhere along the way - either through poor planning, laziness, poor execution. On the other hand, in cases where we are successful, we take full responsibility for those accomplishments, inflating our own egos and patting ourselves on the back.

However, Dr. Keller reminds us that while our own efforts and talents are a component of success and building our futures, they are disproportionately small compared to the myriad of external factors completely outside our control such as where we were born, what kind of family we were born into, the time period in which we were born, etc. Accordingly, so many aspects of our futures were predetermined, even before we could open our eyes.

If we are potters, then for some individuals (ie: trust fund babies), their clay was largely already shaped for them into Ming Dynasty porcelain vases such as this one:

(apparently the most expensive vase ever, worth over $10 million)

For other unfortunate individuals, their clay was of such poor quality to begin with that they could never even hope to begin shaping it. This is the kind of thing that I have been seeing and realizing more and more while in Kenya. When I see some of the conditions that the children live in and the difficulties that they face, I don't know what to realistically hope for them. Is it a life where they can live with a loving family? Maybe a home where they are not abused? A future without HIV? Certainly not living in the suburbs in a house with a 4-car garage, a white picket fence, a beautiful family, and a golden retriever that greets you every morning with a newspaper in its mouth.

It hurts me to say this and I hope that I am wrong, but it seems that no matter how hard some of these kids worked or how many "right" choices they make in their life, the ceiling of reality would quickly crush any lofty ambitions and keep them trapped in the cycle of poverty.

Remand Center (Juvenile Detention Center)

Image of woman and child outside African Church

Children playing on the street in the slums

A hospital waiting room

children outside their home (?)

Little orphan girl

So how should I react to this? Surely, I should be (and I am) grateful for what I have given, but beyond that, I'm not so sure. I see more clearly now than ever that we are not masters of our own destiny but rather recipients and stewards of an amalgam of favorable gifts, conditions, and blessings. Indeed, there have been several characteristics of the poverty here which have been particularly revealing during my time here: the lack of incentive to make right choices, extreme consequences of poor choices, and the spirit of poverty. I will write more about these more in a future post