Culture shock was waiting for me when I got off the plane in Atlanta after nine days in El Salvador. Not just the glitzy airport that doubled as posh shopping mall, and not just the ubiquitous advertisements for the high-income traveling public, but mostly the general demeanor of the people at home: Nobody seemed happy.

I saw travelers from my airplane greeted by clearly unhappy customs and immigration officers who handled their valid questions with impatience and unconcealed contempt. Welcome to the United States! Walking to a connecting flight I passed a red-faced traveler on a cell phone complaining loudly about some ticketing snafu. Ten minutes later the same man strolled into my gate area, still red-faced and whining into his phone.

Looking into the eyes of people all around me -- not only at the airport, but everywhere since my homecoming -- I see weariness, stress, resignation, unhappiness, discontent.

It was very different in El Salvador, where my trip brought me from urban shantytowns to stable neighborhoods of working families, from remote mountain farms where people lived in dirt-floor hovels to luxurious villas on the Pacific. Bur in all stations of life, people seemed generally happier. They smiled more. They treated respectfully the foreigner (me) who didn't speak the language and needed help from time to time.

People who gave me rides in creaky old cars didn't complain about their wheels. Families who lived in cement block houses with cracked tile floors and rusting corrugated steel roofs proudly showed off their homes and served Coca Cola. Street merchants and store clerks were chatty and personable. What a difference. I learned the Spanish word for this: Contento. Contentment.

Now it's way too easy to romanticize poverty and dismiss its many hardships, but its even easier to idealize wealth and dismiss its many limitations. It's one of the devil's lies that money can make you happy, but as a culture we North Americans have swallowed it hook, line and sinker. The Gospels, certainly, and the rest of the Bible again and again warn that seeking happiness through wealth is ultimately an exercise in self-deception and frustration. Instead our happiness comes from loving God with all our strength and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Then whatever station we have in  life, whether rich or poor, we can be content.

--Rob Blezard, editor and webmaster.

 

 

New this week:

 

Tools for a healthy congregation
Here is a great website devoted to helping congregations improve in three areas -- becoming more faithful, welcoming and generous. Check out the interactive diagnostic questionnaire on each of those sections. It includes suggested resources and links to help in areas of growth.  Click here for "Tools for a healthy congregation." From the ELCA.


The collection for the saints of New Orleans
 "Whatever our political persuasion, we are all doing  whatever we can to help.  I can argue all I want about what the government should be doing, but if I have money in the bank that my brother or sister in need can be cared for with, then it rightly belongs to them." Click here for Pastor Dana Reardon's weekly column.


Faith leaders urge budget review after Katrina
Because of Hurricane Katrina, the heads of five Mainline denominations are asking Congress to cancel proposed budget cuts to programs for the poor. "It is clear that programs such as Medicaid and the Food Stamp Program that were slated for cuts by Congress will in fact have greater burdens placed on them as a result of Hurricane Katrina," says the letter, signed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., the United Methodist Church and the United Church of Christ. Click here for the full story. 

The Hows and Whys of Money Leadership
 Wow! Here's a free, seven-part curriculum for leaders who want to plumb the depths of their congregation's financial soul. It covers attitudes about money, congregational finances, leadership, money and theology and other topics. A real gem for congregations that find themselves stuck and don't know how to get going. It was developed cooperatively by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Alban Institute and Lilly Endowment.  Click here for "The Hows and Whys of Money Leadership." This week's Treasure Chest offering.