All The Money I Have

Basketball camp is over for me in this summer of 2018. Well, technically, I'm doing my free throw clinic twice next week but as a full time coach, I'm finished until next June. In twelve days, on the Fourth Of July, I take off for Can Tho, Vietnam by way of Singapore and Saigon/HCMC. It takes me several weeks to totally get ready with all the details which surround being out of the country for a month. Camp went well under Tyler Guidry, my former student, who was in charge for the first time. One issue we dealt with this year was being away from our main location for the first time. Since we had camp at our West Campus, five blocks away, we had to handle getting several children back and forth to our WCS ASAP program. This morning as we were getting ready to start our 8:30 session, someone noticed that Rocky wasn't here. Normally, our AD, Mark Krimm delivers him but Mark left for vacation yesterday. Tyler called the school front desk and discovered Rocky was waiting for a ride. I volunteered and made the two minute trek and found Rocky, who absolutely loves basketball camp, waiting. The first thing he asked was, "Can I ride shotgun?" No, you're in the back seat, Rocky. I should explain that Rocky was in one of our kindergarten classes this past school year and I ate lunch with he and his classmates multiple times so we go way back or at least as far as a six year old can go!

As we made the drive from one campus to the other, Rocky and I conversed. I told him I would not be at camp next week because I was preparing  to go to Vietnam. He asked why I was going there and I related it to our Honduras/Haiti orphanage projects which he was involved in by collecting loose change. Rocky asked me if the people in Vietnam are poor and I told him many of them are. He asked if I was going to collect pennies like we do at school and I told him that adults assist my going with dollars and I use it to help people there. He asked if I would come back without any money and I told Rocky that would be the case, referring, of course, to my mission funds and not my personal bank account. This bothered him, leading to his next statement:
"Coach Hawley, if you don't have any, I will give you all the money I have."
Very simple and succinct. Rocky even repeated it. I was touched, almost taken aback. I thanked him but like I said, it was a short drive and so a short conversation. As soon as we arrived, I told Samantha, our camp coordinator, what had happened and she had the same reaction as me.  What an unbelievable thing for anyone to say, let alone a small child.

Twelve hours later and reflecting on my talk with Rocky, here is what I think many adults would say in that moment with a similar understanding of what Rocky perceived as my desperate situation:
Let me get back to you.
Let me see what I can do.
Let me make a few phone calls.
Look, I'm not saying we should jump right into what could be a complicated set of circumstances. But what I am saying is we, including me, put ourselves into the equation very quickly but Rocky didn't consider his own well-being. He put others, in this case me, before himself. James chapter 2 uses an illustration of a believer repeating some platitudes to another believer who is in dire straits instead of actually doing something tangible to alleviate the need. That wasn't Rocky. His first reaction, without hesitation, was to empty his own piggy bank. That's what I wish my initial response would always be. I in my adult wisdom would play out the pluses and minuses and make sure I don't make rash statements I will feel grudgingly obligated to fulfill. You know, that's a serious deposit Rocky made this morning in his laying up treasure in heaven bank account, the one in which interest rates don't factor. He could give a lot of us financial lessons in compassion. Sometimes it just takes a child to show us the way.

Applicable quote of the day:
No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. 
Emma Goldman

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com