Part 1: L.U.V., Compassion, Mercy

Happy International Women’s Day 2020. I didn’t plan to launch this post today but I guess of all days to create and post it, today is a great day. What’s interesting is it’s actually a pretty good compilation of most of the things I said in three 15 minute videos I recorded on Thursday but never posted. They say “timing is everything” so let’s see what today brings (smile)!

For starters, if you don't know my name it is Kara (like the vehicle, car, plus "uh" not the emotion, care, plus "uh") Lynn Sanders. My nickname is Kai (rhymes with hi, sky and bye), which most people call me. I am a mom of one amazing four year old son who is my heart beating outside of me. Being a mom is my career of choice because my son is the client of my dreams and I Love to work for him. His name is Wisdom, a name given by God. I would not have put that much pressure on myself to give my child a name like that to live up to. Since I am a woman of God I didn’t shy away from giving it to him. When I was given his name, Wisdom was given a name AND a responsibility. I'm honored to be his mom.

It is important for me to be clear that I believe in God because my faith has helped me look at my situation of living in poverty with eyes I would not have had if it weren’t for my faith. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not inviting you to believe. I’m just letting you know I mention God A LOT and I don’t want you to take it personally. I simply have hope for a better day for ALLLL of us whether you believe or not.

The last introduction I will make is as C.B.B. That is the title I hold in the company I have, called L.U.V. Enterprises. L.U.V. is an acronym for “learn ur value”. Personally my definition of Love/L.U.V. is “the opportunity, blessing and challenge of seeing God/Goddess in others, especially when they don’t see Them in themselves; honoring, reverencing and nurturing that God/Goddess within until They/they are manifest without.” The last part of the definition may sound familiar as it is from a famous quote by Marianne Williamson. 

Now me take a moment to refer you back to the title of this post, “L.U.V., Compassion, Mercy”. This is where the Love part comes in. It’s the name of my company because “God is Love” and Love is the gift He bestowed upon me to share with others. That generous bestowal was made possible only after I learned my own value. And here we are. 

So let’s talk about me being a C.B.B. It is an acronym for Chief Bushel Blaster. Go ahead... smile or laugh. I'll be offended if you don't (wink). Of course I'll explain. In Matthew 5 Jesus is giving the Sermon on the Mount. He gives many instances where He talks about people shining their lights. In one instance He compares our lights to a candle.

Paraphrasing He said a candle should not have a bushel placed on it. It should be put on a mantel to give light to the entire house. In our world today I see how bushels have been placed on so many people’s lights. It means the world is a darker place because of it. My calling is to help people’s lights to shine by helping them blast their bushels off, no matter who placed them there.

For the last few months I’ve been sharing some of my experiences with homelessness in different arenas like my YouTube page, my Facebook page and this blog. Two weeks ago my son and I were “released back into homelessness” by the shelter program we were in because I had not found employment in their six week time frame. This was after being on a wait list for over two months to even enter the program. I will not go into the details of that experience but it was more awful than it was good mostly because many of the people who worked the program attempt to strip the participants of their dignity because of their poverty. Needless to say, I’m glad we are gone.

By the grace of God, after only one night sleeping in my storage unit, we are sleeping on an air mattress in a living room but there were several weeks last year when we slept in my car. We would have slept in the car again if it had not been totaled last year (thankfully we were not in the car when it happened). We are not in the type of environment I feel comfortable raising my son in but we’re not outside or in the storage unit so I do not complain. 

In the midst of all this I have had to ask God “what in the world is going on?” He helped me to see that He has used my son and I as His "research assistants". It’s as though I’ve been working on my Master’s degree in the School of Life. Living in poverty and looking to God, He has opened my eyes to a several ways to help people truly get out of poverty that others are not currently employing. This is where compassion comes in. 

As a note, compassion is an interesting word. I don’t think people realize it has a two part definition. The first part is to express sympathy for what someone is going through. The second half which makes compassion compassion (versus sympathy or sorrow) is to have a STRONG desire to alleviate the suffering. That's what dictionary.com says, "a strong desire". While there is a lot of sympathy and sorrow in the world there is definitely not enough of the "strong desire" to make a significant difference in the current crisis among those living at or below the poverty line. So let’s talk about how WE can alleviate the suffering for ourselves and others.

Continued in Part 2...