Over the past few months, it’s been hard not to see pieces about the federal government overhaul come across my feed — I do try to tell Google and other tools to show me less political content. But training the tech still takes time, and politics can touch everything from business to entertainment, which makes it harder not to hear about it even outside of news publications.
So, ironically nestled in between articles about mindfulness and scientific breakthroughs, the articles sit.
They tell me about
- a potential loss to heating, cooling, and other utility assistance for the poor. I remember my mother applying for the LIHEAP assistance to keep the furnace on after I went to college.
- people who may have trouble accessing Medicare and the Social Security payments they rely on for rent/mortgage payments and basics like food and medicine.
- food programs being cut in schools, for the elderly, and the poor at home and around the world.
- the potential for resurgences in disease as funding dries up for health tracking and vaccines.
- those who likely will be unable to get mental health and addiction support, even as leaders at home and around the world recognize that mental health and addiction is getting worse rather than better. I understand that the cuts will mean more trauma — as the saying goes, hurt people hurt people. Friends and family members of those who suffer will suffer, too.
In the midst of all this, my Bible tells me to take care of the poor. The sick. The elderly. (Matthew 25:31-46; Deuteronomy 15:11; Luke 14:12-14; Leviticus 19:32)
I’m told to love my neighbor. (Matthew 22:34-40)
How can I not be heartsick, especially when all of the above is done under the banner of Christ, stealing hope and confusing people about Who He is and what the church is supposed to be?
Experience breeds empathy–and heartache
To be clear, I’m not against holding the government accountable. With clear cases of moral failing on both sides, I’m not naive enough to think that everyone in office is upright. I know there are inefficiencies we can trim. I also learned early as a kid not to be lazy, but rather to expect only what I’ve worked for. In that sense, I’m all for a review and revamp, no matter which party is in control.
But my own experiences give me empathy for the poor. The sick. The elderly.
In that empathy, the degree of cuts and the manner in which they are implemented leave me broken. I understand that it’s not just the beneficiaries of programs who are going to have hardship. All of those who have been laid off will, too.
It’s hard not to feel helpless.
Yet, am I?
A little hope, one bag of food at a time
Just a few minutes away from my home, there’s an organization called Feed My Starving Children. Their premise is simple — pack meals, ship meals, let kids have something to eat.
One of the reasons I like them is that, even though you can donate money, you also can simply sign up to put the meals together. But they have partnerships with artisans in the communities that are getting the food, too. You can buy what the artisans make as an additional way to support people. Some products are simple, like polished wooden crosses. But others, like handcrafted bags, dolls, or beaded animals, take a lot of care and patience.
I’ve volunteered at FMSC before. But as the headlines piled up, it didn’t take much to get me to agree to go again when my husband suggested it.
I needed to do something.
Anything.
We went with my daughter and packed bags of food in a two hour session. At the end, the entire crew had packed more than 22,000 meals, enough to feed 62 kids for an entire year. I bought a pencil pouch to keep in my bag as I go out to work with my tablet, and a unicorn — I’m a bit obsessed with unicorns and collect them because I feel like they symbolically defy everything dark in the world. Both items felt appropriate. Words that offer hope matter. Defiance of bad things does, too.
Stick together, help somebody
Maybe you, as a leader, are lost in the uncertainty of everything that’s going on and don’t know what to tell your team. But the government upheaval isn’t the only thing making people feel like they have no control right now. And in your life, for a whole host of reasons, you might be in a moment where you feel like you can’t stop the train of wrongs that are bearing down on you, your family, or your community.
But as I packed those bags, I remembered two simple, famous stories.
First, stone soup.
A soldier comes to a town during a famine. He pretends he has a “magic” stone that will make a sufficient soup. He plops his absolutely ordinary stone in the pot and slyly makes suggestions about what would be good in the soup. Little by little, the people in the village contribute all the ingredients that are needed. Everyone, giving what they have, create enough.
Secondly, the starfish.
A girl walks along the beach, patiently throwing starfish back into the water. A man points out that she can’t possibly help all the starfish and tells her she can’t begin to make a difference. Undeterred, the girl hurls another starfish into the water and tells the man it made a difference to that one.
You can’t fix everything alone. But you can fix something if you band with others. You can’t help everyone. But you can help someone. And especially in times of desperation, that’s enough to please God.
Don’t get overwhelmed. Go do. Make the soup. Throw the starfish. If there is even a little love, we win.