Taking out the trash

A couple of Saturdays ago, several of us had a unique opportunity to spend time with a gentleman named Francisco. Don “Panchito” is a 79-year-old patient at the clinic who collects recycling for a living and lives in a 4.5 m² adobe brick squatter house in Wichanzao. But more than that, he’s a sweet guy who works hard, cracks jokes, and always expresses his genuine appreciation. Which is one reason why, when we found out that his roof (one layer plastic, one layer woven straw material) had collapsed, we wanted to help.

So, after consulting with Pastor Juan from Wichanzao church, collecting some money and volunteer interest, and checking out materials, we headed to don Panchito’s house to give the project a shot. We ended up having a good group of 15 or 20 people, consisting of several people from the clinic, the Wichanzao church, SUSA and Cristo Rey, and a couple of his neighbors.

We thought the primary job would be replacing the remains of his old roof with sheets of tin, or calamina. Of course, that was the main task, and the more experienced guys did a great job with its construction. However, I found myself in an interesting role: emptying shovelfuls of debris from don Panchito’s house. You see, the house was full to the top of everything you can possibly imagine, and this man had literally been living in a trash dump. Some things he had piled to the ceiling to keep his roof from falling completely, some things he was saving to recycle or sell, and some things I think he just didn’t know what to do with. It was definitely intimidating to see the house so full and to think about beginning to make it more livable.

At first, don Panchito didn’t even want us to take anything out. “I’ll take care of it. Don’t trouble yourself. There are probably rats and fleas. I can take things out little by little.” But we eventually coaxed him into letting us clean a little bit of it. Although we left a lot in there, the room has much more space now, and there’s at least clear path to his bed. It was hard finding the balance between respecting his dignity and right to make decisions and convincing him that he didn’t deserve to be living in such conditions. Plus, a lot of what looked like junk to our eyes was a valuable piece of plastic, glass, or iron to be sold, or even a meaningful memoir or possession to treasure. So we had to be careful, to respect, to receive his guidance, to look through his eyes. And I’m sure, at the end of the day, it was hard – probably even embarrassing – to see so much that had been filling his house piled on the road for all to see.

The entire experience actually convicted several of us, and we realized how much we are like don Panchito. We get accustomed to seeing the messy realities of those around us and, especially, to living in our own trash dumps: bad habits, broken relationships, resentment, bitterness, mistakes, regret, addictions, complacency. It’s too hard to fix, we’re too far down that road, it’s really not that bad, I’m doing alright like I am, I’m working on improving it. “I’ll take care of it. Really, I don’t need the help. It’s ugly in there. I can do it, little by little.” We’re ashamed to let the world see it. We don’t want help. What’s more, we don’t want to let go of the trash we’ve come to treasure. Surely we can do something good with it. Or at least it reminds us of something we once loved.

But the reality is, we can’t clean it up by ourselves. And we forget that no one should have to live in these circumstances. Jesus longs to take us out of this junk we’ve become so attached to. We don’t dare to imagine how much better things can be, the marvelous alternative that is possible, but God wants to work beside us and make it a reality. To redeem us from our rubbish, to make something beautiful out of it. To give us a community to love us and to help clean things up.

It’s hard to give it up. I think it was for don Panchito. But we need an extreme makeover just as much as he did. And, if we can humble ourselves to receive the help, it’s scarily exciting to think about what God can do in our lives and in His kingdom. And, with what Jesus has planned, I think it’ll be a heck of a lot better than one afternoon’s work of putting on a new tin roof.