{"id":85,"date":"2022-11-28T17:27:48","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T17:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/28\/our-award-winning-creative-campaign\/"},"modified":"2023-01-17T15:21:47","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T15:21:47","slug":"a-poor-man-has-no-shoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/2022\/11\/28\/a-poor-man-has-no-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"A Poor Man Has No Shoes"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"85\" class=\"elementor elementor-85\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-7ce038c elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"7ce038c\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-5571d90b\" data-id=\"5571d90b\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5a552446 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5a552446\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.8.1 - 13-11-2022 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#818a91;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#818a91;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><!-- wp:paragraph --><\/p>\n<p>There are long stretches of endless grasslands and open plains in the Transkei region of South Africa.\u00a0 Road trips in this part of the world were made for random reflections and candid conversations.\u00a0 \u00a0On one such occasion a group of five of us from the US and South Africa were sharing stories of our efforts and experiences among the endless poor and ever dying in this remarkable country.<\/p>\n<p>We were talking about things like AIDS and orphanage work when someone shared a story about a man she had met in a clothing effort they had done the previous week.\u00a0 \u00a0He was looking over a pile of shoes when she decided to see if she could help.\u00a0 \u201cWhat size do you wear?\u201d she asked. \u00a0\u00a0Without looking up he merely said, \u201cA poor man has no sizes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His response gripped me, poignant and profoundly true at so many levels.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cA poor man has no sizes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 I suppose it\u2019s another way of saying, \u201cBeggars can\u2019t be choosy.\u201d\u00a0 Or is it?\u00a0 How can a person, any person have no size?\u00a0 As surely as I am a size eight, this man has a size.\u00a0 No matter how poor or disenfranchised, he has a size.\u00a0 The poor have sizes if we will but take the time to measure.<\/p>\n<p>How does one get to such a point?\u00a0 To become so unimportant and non-descript as to think yourself undeserving of a pair of cast off shoes that actually fit.\u00a0 Poverty has a way of stripping a person of more than the economic means to survive in this world but of their God-given dignity as well.\u00a0 \u00a0I\u2019ve seen it in the once proud faces of men standing in food lines in Beirut, Lebanon as well as the homeless in our own downtown area.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cA poor man has no sizes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It reminded me that the greater work of any form of benevolence is the preservation or, in many cases, the restoration of a person\u2019s dignity.\u00a0 To give in such a way that those who receive feel themselves the equal to those who do the giving.\u00a0 To live and serve in the ever-mindful awareness of, \u201cthere but for the grace of God go I.\u201d\u00a0 That kind of giving and serving insists on knowing a man\u2019s shoe size, anything less would simply miss the mark.<\/p>\n<p>One of the reasons I so love Christmas is because of its inherent benevolence that has a way of taking on a collective form.\u00a0 Dickens captured it all so well in his classic,\u00a0<em>A Christmas Carol.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>I am struck anew every time I read those words of Jacob Marley when he confronts his old business partner, Ebenezer Scrooge in the opening part of the story.\u00a0 \u00a0\u201c\u2019Business!\u2019 cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again.\u00a0 \u2018Mankind was my business, the common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were, all my business.\u00a0 The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s good to be reminded that mankind is our business, especially the poor.\u00a0 Our work here at Significant Matters is to do all we can to connect those who want to help with those who want help in order to see lives changed and communities transformed.\u00a0 If the poor are indeed our business then our first act of service may very well be helping them know their shoe size.<\/p>\n<p>Love with reckless abandon, give with unbridled extravagance and may the upcoming year be one of your best!<\/p>\n<p>Tom Bassford<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/wp:paragraph --><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are long stretches of endless grasslands and open plains in the Transkei region of South Africa.  Road trips in this part of the world were made for random reflections and candid conversations.   On one such occasion a group of five of us from the US and South Africa were sharing stories of our efforts and experiences among the endless poor and ever dying in this remarkable country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[12],"tags":[14],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sm.oneplusoneproductions.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}