Baaaa or Maaaaaa?

Actually, three singing pigs say, "la, la, la!"

But really - thanks for your words on this. I've been really dwelling about my own family's responsibililty to the suffering, particularly in light of your recent trip. It has almost paralyzed me as I seek to reconcile a love for art and beauty as well as a heart for those in need and wonder if it's okay to still love, still pay for art and beauty when I know how much further that money would go in a third world situation.

I'm still wrestling through it.

You got past the symbolism and found the meaning.....you grasped the spiritual understanding rather than the worldly understanding.

I am delighted to say I'll join you in the baaing - which is weird because I raise goats and love the sounds they make. We do what we can - each deed gives us an opportunity to expand our territory (not gain things but learn how to give them away!).

Thank you for this post. I cannot tell you what perfect timing it is. Last night, as I prayed, I asked God, "What is enough?" Not so much driven by fear of failing, but fear of disappointing Him. Is feeding the homeless here equivalent to feeding the poor in Uganda? Somtimes, this train of thought really plagues me, and I realize that this is not the point. There is no such thing as "enough," but if we do what we can, and we do something, then surely it counts as something, right?

You're so right. God just wants us all to do something to help. I lived in Asia Minor for 3 years and when I try to explain it to someone who has never been outside the USA it is difficult. I just always wind up saying something inadequate like the poor there are not like the poor here.

David, I totally agree with you that as individuals we aren't called to fix all the world's problems and that we have a responsibility to do whatever we can to change one person's life or a few people's lives or whatever. But I disagree on a deeper level, because I think that we, collectively, are supposed to be about the work of solving all the world's problems. What's the point of Christ's message of redemption and the call to live out justice if we aren't supposed to restore the world to what it's supposed to be? How can we read the words of the Old Testament prophets and not recognize a collective responsibility? An intellectually honest Christian has to admit that poverty has both individual and structural causes, and while I believe with all my heart that helping individuals to overcome their own situations is crucial and important, I'm equally convinced that we have a responsibility to work at a larger level to fix these situations. It's not enough to help a poor child grow up to be a slightly less poor adult - that's not Biblical justice. Dealing with huge, structural problems like national debt, disease epidemics, and corruption are key to making it possible for individuals to thrive, and while we can't individually fix those things, as a church, we can.

From living and working in central Africa, I've learned that guilt is a useless emotion. As you say, it's paralyzing, and it leads to a legalism that doesn't help anyone. But it seems to me that Matthew 25 tells us that God's justice is about more than simple acts of charity. It's about a way of life.

To call attention to those who exploit the poor is also an act of charity. To come together and find a way to provide clean water in a single clinic is an act of charity.
I believe it was a Kenyan politician who spoke of the problem of politics in his country - it is all motion without movement. That is what we must avoid. Moving even a bit is still moving. We are talking politics - and within that conversation is the possibility of moving toward the Kingdom of God. It already exists among us - and we have evidence in those pictures that David took and those stories he tells. It is in the moving toward these people - however imperfectly it might happen - that we are changed.