Doing Good, Feeling Raw |
Jan 26, 2010 |
I had an interesting experience today. It left me feeling raw.
As I was looking for something on the internet, I got sidetracked with news updates on Haiti. I watched this video followed by this video. Tears were streaming down my face as the human and emotional toll of the disaster struck me – deeply – unlike before.
Later in the day (video-watching and nose-blowing behind me), I noticed this posting on Katya Andresen’s Non-Profit Marketing blog. Of course I was curious to read the job description for the Non-Profit Marketing Director she is seeking to hire.
What caught my attention – it’s in the section titled Position Overview, about half way down – was the Network for Good motto:
“People who thrive at Network for Good are those that enjoy doing good in a fast-moving, mold-breaking working environment always focused on results. We live by our motto: “do good, feel good,” and just as importantly, by our business plans.”
The motto is fine, really. Not particularly inspirational, but fine.
But as Christians – and one still smarting from the pain of those videos from Port-au-Prince - we know that doing good doesn’t always lead to feeling good. In fact, it often leads to just the opposite.
Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Is that ‘doing good?’ Yes. Does it feel good? Not so much.
And what about traveling to a decimated, poverty-stricken country, Haiti, to serve those who have no access to life-saving services and have lost everything, including family members, homes, and possessions? Doing good? Yes. Feeling good. Hard to imagine the answer could be yes.
Here’s the great insight my colleague Matt Bates, Regional Giving and Training Officer, Mission Increase Foundation, shared last week as we contemplated the response to the tragedy in light of transformational giving:
“A transformational question that springs to mind is: how can we, like God, suffer with those who are suffering in this tragedy and resist the temptation to remain aloof?
It’s occurring to me that one of the great dividing lines between ttf (traditional, transactional fundraising) and TG is that ttf gifts inoculate us from suffering and permit us to remain aloof, while TG gradually changes our identity until we are engaged and present with those who suffer, such that their suffering becomes our own”
As you consider how to respond (or respond further) to the earthquake in Haiti, ask yourself what more you might do such that the suffering of the Haitians might in some way become your own suffering.
Please share your thoughts as many of us would like to somehow engage further with the people impacted by this tragedy.
Jan 28, 2010 at 7:06 PM These are two very important points! Thank you so much for what you have written. It is true that doing what is good, what is right, is not always easy nor pain-free. For many people, giving money is actually a way to detach further. Having "done their part" they are free to get back to their lives. However, as we chose to walk beside people through life's challenges, not only do we experience the pain, but we are still there to experience the joy that follows through God's restoration. Thank you for reminding us the importance of that tranformational experience for our champions.