Enormity As A Problem |
Oct 9, 2009 |
My colleague, Matt Baxter, posted an excellent blog over at EricFoley.com. I'd like to share some of it with you:
"There is no doubt in my mind that enormity is …dare I say it… the biggest problem facing us today. Consider the following:
Look at how we talk about the “Enormity” of AIDS in Africa – “Each day, 6,000 Africans die from AIDS and an additional 11,000 are infected.” {Lester R. Brown, HIV Epidemic Restructuring Africa’s Population, World Watch Issue Alert, 31 October 2000 }. 6,000 each day?! That’s 250 an hour. We don’t even see that many deaths in an entire season of Law and Order – there’s no way the average American can relate.
We’re told, “15 million children die of hunger each year.” Most of us don’t want to think about a child dying; the stark horror of this fact leaves us feeling impotent. In the end, we often keep the need at arm’s length so we don’t have to deal with it.
As ministries, we fall victim to trying to spread our “vision” by showing people the enormity of need. We reason “If only they understood the need like I do, they’d share my vision, open their wallets and fund my ministry,” and then scratch our heads and wonder what happened as they seem to exhibit cold indifference.
But when you break things down into more manageable chunks, suddenly the enormity of the situation doesn’t seem so daunting.
Think about the daunting challenge facing an alcoholic looking to be freed from his addition. He can’t hope to recover it all at once; the enormity of the challenge is best dealt with “one day at a time.”
Thomas Aquinas warned teachers not to dig a ditch in front of a student and fail to fill it in. “To nearly raise doubts, and to ever seek and never find is to be in opposition to education and progress.” And yet, too often that’s what we do with our donors. We dig a ditch with our facts as we present the need to them, hoping that “Enormity” will make them want cross it and join “the cause.” Is it any wonder why we get averted eyes or “uncaring” people? We forgotten our responsibility to fill the ditch in by inviting them to participate and own just a little bit of the cause…and make an immediate impact one day at a time.
When you stop and think about it, this is exactly the same steps our Heavenly Father does with us through that amazing process called “Sanctification.” Like Isaiah, I’m overwhelmed – undone – with the enormity of how evil my heart really is when I’m confronted by the Holy One. I can’t ever hope to fix it. And yet God, in His amazing wisdom and grace, doesn’t just save us and then leave us to figure out the process on our own. He proceeds to transform us one day at a time into the likeness of His Son. And He invites us to join Him in His cause – restoring the human heart, truly the most enormous challenge facing the world. And He does it on a small scale, one person – one heart – one day at a time.
This is a process we can model!"
Matt is the Director of Ministry Development for Mission Increase Foundation.
