“
Dr. Matthew S. Brown
As with a mailbox containing
an actual, bona fide hand written note, our hearts quicken with joyous
expectation when we click the “get mail” button on our computers and see a name
indicating a communication from an old friend, and just as with the mailbox
filled with bills and bothersome junk, our spirits are deflated when the only
e-mails we see are those syrupy and saccharine proverbs that are passed on from
mailing group to mailing group along with other “What’s wrong with my spam
filter?” credit offers/stock tips/miracle drug ads that slip through to your
screen.
But every once in a while
you’ll see an e-mail that has bounced around from
Some students just didn’t get
the concept. “He was as tall as a
six-foot, three-inch tree.” “Her
vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.”
“John and Mary had never met.
They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.” “He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a
real duck that was actually lame, maybe from stepping on a land mine or
something.”
Then there were those
students who made the attempt and just missed the mark. “The little boat gently drifted across the
pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.”
“The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because
of his wife’s infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly
surcharge-free ATM.” “From the attic
came an unearthly howl. The whole scene
had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and
Jeopardy comes on at
And then there were those
students whose prose defied explanation.
“Her hair glistened in the rain like a nose hair after a sneeze.” “The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law
Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just
might work.” “He was deeply in
love. When she spoke, he thought he
heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.”
But the one that has stuck
with me; the one I have grown to love; the one that I find to be most
descriptive is this: “His thoughts
tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer
without Cling Free.”
I love it! Maybe because I find it to
be so true. Busy
lives. Massive amounts of information coming at you from all
directions. Newspapers, magazines, talk
radio, television punditry, Tuesday folders, Teacher’s notes, telephone
messages, newsletters, e-mails, work projects, committee reports, meeting
agendas, correspondence, birthday cards, inescapable
Hallmark Holiday expectations. Keeping
track and keeping on track become more and more challenging. There is a whole lot to think about, isn’t
there? And it is as though my mind
becomes a static rich environment, thoughts getting hung up on one thing but
before you get the matter settled, your jumbled
thoughts go tumbling in another direction getting hung up in a completely
different place.
It is, I suppose, a sign of
being overwhelmed. Maybe you are so
organized, maybe your mind is so efficiently compartmentalized, maybe your conscience is so incomparably clear that “overwhelming”
is not a word in your lexicon. But for
the rest of us, a moment, a day, a phase or period of time finds us paralyzed
by the whelming flood of ought to, need to, do not delay; think about this,
that about that and have it all wrapped up by the end of today.
Don’t you just hate it when
there is so much to do, so much to think about, so much to decide, so much to
accomplish that you don’t know where to start, and gosh, taking that first step
seems so daunting? The traffic jam in
your brain has made movement, action, focus impossible. Call it brain gridlock.
Certainly this is the malady
that plagues us when we consider the needs of this world. The truth is we have no beef with John’s word
to us this day. We know that his
challenge to us is legitimate and reflective of the revelation of God in Jesus
Christ. When he asks, “How does God’s
love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in
need and yet refuses help?” We know
that’s a legitimate question.
Listen to the way Eugene
Peterson renders this verse in his translation, The Message. “If you see some brother or sister in need
and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do
nothing what happens to God’s love? It
disappears. And you made it
disappear.” Wow! We are chastened by the veracity of those
words.
But to paraphrase an old
proverb, the ocean of need is so great and my bucket seems so small. Just a superficial survey of countless
contemporary world needs calling out for the church’s attention, for your
attention and mine can paralyze us with the feeling that we could never make
any difference. Where do you start? Well, there’s the crisis in
There’s a need for mentorship
and leadership in our schools. There’s a
need for affordable housing throughout the country. Who’s going to join the fight against
domestic abuse, against cancer, against illiteracy, against global warming,
against injustice, against land mines - remember that crisis? It hasn’t disappeared. It has just slipped off the radar.
Who will help the people of
the
The ocean of need is so great
and our bucket seems so small. No, we
can’t do it all. But we can do
something. You can find the one thing. You can find that place where your good gifts
and your great passion intersect with one of the world’s great needs. You cannot do it all. But you can find that one thing and you can
make a difference.
Some eighteen years ago in
Atlanta, a salesman and his wife, a nurse practitioner, decided not to do
everything, but did decide to do something.
They opened Cafe 458. There, the
homeless are welcomed with graciousness and treated with dignity. They sit down at tables with
table-clothes. They are waited on by
considerate volunteer waiters. They
order the meal of their choice from an ever changing menu that bears little
resemblance to typical soup kitchen fare often including items like veggie
frittatas or shrimp and
“The homeless patrons make
table reservations for a month at a time, with extensions provided they are
working steadily toward the goals they have set for improving their
lives.” Many former homeless, whose
lives were changed through the program now serve as
volunteers. The program has been lauded
the the Food Network and by no less than former President Jimmy Carter who met
a man named Roy who said he had slept in a Dunkin’ Donuts dumpster for ten
years before he being welcomed at Cafe 458.
Through the care and the program he then stopped selling cocaine, took a
job with a landscaping company, made foreman in six months, and found his
faith. Treated with care and respect a
new world opened up for him. (Carter, Living Faith)
Columnist Rick Reilly decided
not to do everything. But he did decide
to do something besides dust the many trophies he has won for sports
writing. When he heard about the 3000
children who die in
He says, “Think of all the
nets that are taken for granted in sports!
Ping-Pong nets.
Batting cage nets. Terrell Owen’s bassinet. If you sit behind the plate at a baseball
game, you watch the action through a net.
You download the highlights on Netscape and forward it on the net to
your friend Ben-net while eating Raisinets.
Sports is nothing but net.” So when you think of a net do something about
these mosquito nets. He says, “Way more
fun than your fantasy bowling league, dude.”
Rick Reilly couldn’t meet all
the world’s needs, but he could attack that one.
What need out there is
calling your name?
Our own Bob Foote can’t meet
all the world’s needs. But he had a free
Saturday and learned he could make a difference about one. This banker is getting pretty good at
shepherding a few folks up to the mountains to help flood victims recover from
hurricane damage from two years ago. The
rest of the country has moved on to more recent disaster recovery efforts, but
Bob knows the need is still so great right there.
Lauree Watnee can’t meet all
the world’s needs. But her family can
sure make a difference about one.
Yesterday was another day for the Watnees up at the Salvation Army
Women’s and Children’s Center where they were cooking pasta, slicing desserts,
and bringing a little light into the lives of some folks who have been hurting
in the darkness.
David Nichols can’t meet all
the world’s needs. Yet, he can do
something about the future for children in
You know the darkness that
shrouds you when you become overwhelmed by the immensity of the world’s
needs? It’s a bummer, isn’t it? You cannot meet all the world’s needs, but
you can do something, and when you do the blessing of Isaiah’s prophecy may
well become your reality. May we leave
this place with Isaiah’s words on our hearts:
“If you are generous with the
hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your
lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in
sunlight.” Amen.
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