A Needed Desperation

I have had the incredible privilege of traveling to several cultures in our world. I haven’t seen many well-groomed photogenic scenes. I have been to India but never saw the Taj Mahal. My travels have been of the “missionary” type, where we encouraged the local Christians and their neighborhoods. The people, places, and communities often bubble up when my mind is in reflection mode.

In the peaceful quiet of the early day this morning, a memory of a shopping trip in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, drifted into the center view of my mental meandering. The time we spent in the bustling and dusty capital city was brief: a day of recovery from the flight to get there. Then, when our assignment was completed, we had another day of preparation for the long flight home.

On one of our departure preparation days, our missionary custodial in-country missionaries took us to pick up a few items of memorabilia from the local artisans/merchants. In Ouagadougou, our regular shopping destination was a peaceful and secure artisans’ center designed with the tourists in mind. This time, we were taken to “the canal” shopping spot.

The canal was a large open concrete wet weather drainage ditch. Though it was smaller, it reminded me of those concrete rivers I have seen in movies in some cities in California. We never went to Burkina Faso in the rainy season, so the ditch is mostly dried mud and the debris humans tend to discard in their wake— in the bottom, a small trickle of some sort of fluid winding its way through the city.

The typical cluster of small businesses that lined third-world city streets was next to the road. Behind those businesses was a compact collection of rag-tag shops of desperate merchants in the narrow space between the canal and the back of the stores.

When we entered this retailer’s domain, the tempo of activity suddenly accelerated to a frenzy. That’s what it felt like. It was loud, with hawkers pushing their items, talking over each other, and stumbling over each other. Hands holding sales opportunities were three deep surrounding us. The interaction was so congested that I could not get my camera out.

After making our purchases, we moved the swarm back to our escape transportation. As I got into the car, a young man nearly got in with me and put some article (I cannot remember what it was) he was selling in my lap. He held out one hand for compensation, and the other he used to convey its price.

That event has given me a deep hurt in my humanity. Those young men were desperate to make a sale. They needed money that day for that day. They appeared to be desperate and destitute. They were not trying to complete a sales quota; they were attempting to put food on the table for that night. Obesity was not evident anywhere among them. My hunger tells me when it’s time to eat. Their hunger tells them they have got to eat.

An odd condition afflicts healthy followers of Jesus. This condition is a contradiction. While they realize a deep sense of peace and contentment, they also experience a corresponding sense of desperation and destitution. Jesus says this is a “blessed” state of living.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6, CSB)

Photo – Taken for a moving car in India.