Posted by Rachel on: 03.08.2007 /
Jim posted this comment on Pray for Uganda:
Sometimes it is difficult to know which crisis to pay the most attention to. What have you two learned about how to cope with all the needs and then where to focus your efforts knowing that in doing so you are ignoring some other critical need?
It is as if our lives are in full time Triage mode since we now “know” what is happening and can’t always bury our heads in the sand.
Jim raises some great questions. Once we choose to become aware of the crushing need in the world around us, it changes and challenges us.
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Comment by: Helen
1 03/8/07 5:54 PM | Comment Link |Rachel, I’ll repeat what I said on CatE since you liked it there!
One doable thing we started last year was making loans through Kiva. That was because of what I’d read on Off The Map: Jim mentioned Kiva one time on one of our blogs.
If you take Jesus as your example -then it seems to me he had a plan which incorporated his priorities; then his focus was on sticking to his big-picture plan rather than trying to meet every need that crossed his path. Because he must have walked past people every day who needed healing. How did he do that and not feel guilty? I think it was because saying no was part of a thought-out plan to focus elsewhere rather than ‘I don’t care’.
Whenever Jesus said something to his followers about meeting the needs of others I don’t think he meant “feel guilty that you can’t meet every need” - since he wasn’t doing that himself. I think he meant, when you don’t do something, make sure it’s not because you don’t care. Make sure it’s because you’ve planned a focus on other needs that, for whatever reason, you think it’s more important for you personally to attend to.
Comment by: Rachel
2 03/8/07 6:18 PM | Comment Link |Helen, I’m going to repeat what I said on the original “Pray for Uganda” thread since my comment got stuck in the spam-catcher until you rescued it…
I have to say that I am an optimist by nature so I seem to be able to to take in a lot of information about the suffering and injustice in the world and not feel depressed or hopeless. I think part of that is my faith, part of it is just my personality, part of it is that I have a really good life myself, something I have come to more fully understand and appreciate as I learn about the global realities. Also - I take in a lot of positive information in addition to the negative. Two magazines that I subscribe to and highly recommend are Sojourners and Prism. Both magazines feature lots of stories about people making a difference in their context, doing unique, concrete and meaningful work on the micro level. I think it is important to focus on the good news as well as the bad.
As far as knowing how to focus my efforts, when I learn about an issue I try to respond in some way, even if it is small. Not necessarily make that thing my number one passion, but respond. Something I do fairly frequently is to call the offices of my Senators and my Representative. It is one of the actions I can take which has the “most bang for the buck.” Usually it takes me a total of 3-4 minutes to make my 3 phone calls and it has a significant impact because so few people actually call that each phone call is assumed to represent a large number of people. Most of my calls are triggered by emails I receive from the ONE Campaign or Bread for the World with specific legislative information. But sometimes I just call to say “I’m happy that the Senator did such and so” or “I’m very upset about this or that.” I think everybody should consider doing this on a regular basis. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s fast and it has an impact.
On the Darfur issue for example, we went to a rally and donated two blankets and I made a few minutes of phone calls. And I sent away for some free informational brochures and postcards for people to send to the President. Then I put stamps on the postcards and distributed them to a dozen or so people I knew who would actually send them in. I didn’t make Darfur my number one focus or spend tons of time or money on it but I did respond. I think a big thing is recognizing what we are able to do and doing that, looking at it on the micro level. Because if we just say that is too huge and I can’t make a difference, then we do nothing.
Comment by: Jim
3 03/8/07 7:32 PM | Comment Link |IMO Followers of Jesus are obligated to look at his life and attempt to emulate him. If he is God and the center of ultimate reality (which I believe he is)then we need to wonder,study,reflect on and emulate his life. That would include the 30 years he lived before going public. Jesus and his Father and the Holy Spirit conspired together to save planet earth. According to the bible they took action “in the fulness of time” and decided to send one of them masked as a baby (Jesus)
Any way upon arrival they decided to spend the first 30 years of his life (90% of his entire life as it would turn out) doing nothing ( or nothing notable at least unless you believe the Acquarian Gospel (which I find hard to do since I even wonder about the canon itself)
That means that the savior of mankind spent 90% of his time acting like the rest of us do. Living in obscurity and not doing much.
Most of us will die with only a few people knowing who we were. We really wont make much of splash when you take all of history into account.
Why do I say this? Because first and foremost Jesus is the God of ordinary, tired, debt strapped, undermotivated humans and the amazing thing is he still Likes us. I call that Good News.
Now lets go do some damage with our ordinary little 5 loaves and 2 fish of a self. Jesus thinks it is all he needs to make a big deal out of things
Comment by: Helen
4 03/8/07 9:46 PM | Comment Link |Rachel wrote:
Rachel thanks for these examples of doable things we can do that make a difference.
Thanks Jim - this is the grace we need to stand in, that makes it ok to be who we are and do what’s doable for us.
Comment by: trissa
5 03/8/07 10:59 PM | Comment Link |I work in Child Welfare as a Protective Service worker. I see many people at rock bottom. My job sucks from me the ability to care for people. Therefore, instead of dwelling on human suffering, I educate. I try to learn about current events and share that information with those around me. I also try to be an informed voter and explain to people how US foreign policy is very important. While these are small things, they do make an impact.
Comment by: Rachel
6 03/10/07 9:45 PM | Comment Link |Wow, Trissa. What a challenging and important job! I can only imagine the things you see in your line of work and I’m sure it takes quite a toll on you. Thank you for all you do to protect precious children.
Comment by: Doreen
7 03/11/07 3:12 PM | Comment Link |Kiva! I learned about Kiva from Jim also. It is so satisfying to see people’s lives being changed for the better.
It is easy to be overwhelmed.
I look at poverty, suffering, injustice, etc., the same way. I think I can only affect change one person at a time. Then I hope those people will each affect one person, and so on.
Sometimes I just cry.
Comment by: Rachel
8 03/11/07 3:38 PM | Comment Link |Welcome, Doreen! It’s good to see you “over here.”
I’ve been excited about the microfinance concept ever since I attended a workshop by Jim’s OTM co-founder Dave Richards at the 2005 conference. We plan to ask Dave to be a guest blogger here at some point so we can all learn from his expertise in microfinance.
Doreen, sometimes I just cry too. I’ve always loved the quote from World Vision founder Bob Pierce, “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.”
Comment by: Laura M.
9 03/13/07 6:56 AM | Comment Link |Rachel, calling Senators and Reps.is a great idea of an easy but high impact thing we can do. I just take the lazy way and e-mail.
I’d like to hear more about these postcards, they’re also a great idea. Do you know of any other postcard campaigns?
Comment by: Rachel
10 03/13/07 8:19 AM | Comment Link |Laura, The ONE Campaign is actually doing a telephone campaign right now. It is focused on members of the Senate, asking them to sign onto the Dodd-Smith Dear Colleague Letter.
According to the email alert:
The world’s most respected humanitarian and development organizations are joining together this year to call for a historic and badly needed increase in poverty-fighting funding in the 2008 budget.
The request represents strong leadership; 2.4 billion dollars above and beyond the president’s budget request for fighting poverty in the international affairs budget. Currently we’re not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed upon goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015 - and only with bold requests like this can we hope to make-up the difference.
If anyone is interested in participating, call 1-800-786-2663. It is a line sponsored by The ONE Campaign and it automatically recognizes where you are calling from and knows who your Senators are. The recording will review what you are calling about and then you can push #1 to be connected to your Senator’s office. When you call, a staffer comes on the line, “Senator So and So’s office.” All you have to say is, “I’m calling from (your city) and I’d like to ask the Senator to (in this case) sign on to the Dodd-Smith Dear Colleague Letter.” You will hear their keyboard tapping in the background as they note your call in the computer. Then they will say thank-you and you are done!
Comment by: Staci
11 03/13/07 2:59 PM | Comment Link |And if your senator/rep. is already in support it is still good to call and say thank you.