The Human Experience

Last night, my friend Megan Rigby and I went to a pre-screening of Grassroots film called, "The Human Experience." One thing about me is that I have a tendency to be frequently inspired. I'm at constant battle with innumerable interests and pursuits. My heart is too large for its own good sometimes. Last night’s film was not any different. It was, hands down, one of the best films that I have ever seen. It is about these boys from Brooklyn who decide to pack it up one day and remember what it is like to be human. They spend the coldest night of the winter living on the streets of New York with the homeless, they spend weeks in Peru with a group of guys from "Surf for the Cause" helping out in a children’s home, and they visit a leper colony in Ghana, Africa. Their story was so inspiring and beautiful. Essentially, they wanted to know what kept people going. What does it mean to be a human being? What gives you hope in such great suffering?

The boys themselves were from rough inner city backgrounds. They live in a place called St. Joseph's House. Jeffrey and Cliff Azize are two of the main characters and neither of them had seen their father for ten years and their mother passed away when they were young. Michael Campo is a film student who struggles with the life of the city and a disability in his left arm and Mathew Sanchez is another member of this band of brothers whose mother died of aids before he was given the opportunity to know her. They all came together on this "experience" to ask the tough questions.

Megan and I just watched the film along with some other girls from our bible study that we met up with and I know I do not speak for myself when I say that it was mind-blowing. Amidst the most unimaginable suffering, people were of more spirit than many people I see on a day to day basis. The children of Peru were not given a gift from the volunteers; they were the ones giving the gift. Many of these orphans do not have all limbs and are battling with the most painful of predicaments, yet their joy flows so abundantly that it breathed new life into a few hundred people in Boulder, Colorado just last night. They were beautiful and brave and strong.....and they were happy.

The week that Jeffery and Cliff spent on the streets of New York birthed lessons that I would not have expected. There was a man that they spoke to that said, even as he sat freezing on the coldest night of the year, "I know that God has a purpose for me. I do not know what that is, but I am able to help people even if it seems like I have nothing." Likewise, a homeless woman was asked what she would say if she were given an opportunity to speak to the rest of the world. She said that she would ask the world, "Why don't you help your brothers and sisters? When they are in trouble that is what you do."

And in Ghana....a man from the leper colony along with all of the people there that would seemingly have every reason and right to be upset with the world simply looked into Michael's eyes and said, "You are my brother. We are happy. We are the same." Especially in the part of the film devoted to Africa, I found myself in absolute and uncontrollable awe of human life. I do not believe that I have ever doubted it, but now more than ever, in hardship and in good times humanity is a beautiful thing. A woman in Ghana, diagnosed with HIV was given an opportunity to tell the camera what legacy she would like to leave behind for her children. She was not a reverant woman with many years on her life's shelf. She was "still in the sadness" of her diagnoses, but she said, "Trust in God. He will make possible whatever it is you strive to do in your life." Awesome.

Life is one lesson after another. I do not have to be wise with the number of years I have lived to recognize that. The lesson that we all learned last night and the lesson we should all look to; especially in the unfortunate frequency of our own selfishness is that we can make differences. We do not have to go to Ghana or Peru or live homeless for a week to understand that we are all part of something incredible. We can start within our families. In fact, Jeffery Azize and Michael Campo were there last night. We asked them what could be done to "experience" and know love in the way that they seem to have grasped. Jeffery harkened to the part of the film where his brother arranged to see their father for the first time in a decade. He said that we can "make peace within our families" for starters. So there it is. We can take a look at our own lives close at hand and ask ourselves, "How am I loving my brother?"...."How am I loving my sister?" and "How am I being loved?"

I almost did not go to this pre-screening, but God made sure that I was there. My life's suffering is not at all near the level of suffering witnessed in this film. We should all be so lucky as to recognize life's gift as they have.