What
is the source of your holy discontent? You know what I mean… That topic that
makes your blood boil every time it gets mentioned. That image that makes you cringe and look away
when you see it. Is it pornography? Is
it child abuse? Lack of prison reform? AIDS orphans? Corporate
greed? Poverty? Sexual slavery? Illiteracy? Religious persecution?
Addiction? Lack of school funding? Mental illness? Incurable
disease? Religious persecution? Homeless
veterans? Any form of slavery? So what is it? What makes your blood boil?
Now tell me what you do about it.
Did
you help free a ten year old girl from wondering not if she’s going to be
violated in the wee hours of the night but how many times? Did you save a five-year-old little boy from
being thrown over the side of a boat and told to swim or die? Did you help a child who has never hugged
his/her father due to incarnation get to spend an afternoon visiting his
dad? Did you put a hot meal in the tummy
of a child that’s gone without food for several days? Did you go to the hospital and lay an
abandoned baby across your chest so they could feel the joy of skin-to-skin
contact before they took their last breath?
Did you drop off that bag of unwanted craft supplies and that bundle of
box tops to your local elementary school because you don’t need them but you
know kids in a nearby district can’t afford crayons? Did you snag an extra package of underwear
when you were doing your back to school shopping to donate to the homeless
veterans drop box? I could go on and on but I think you get the point and
you're not going to like the next thing I have to say so buckle up.
I've
heard it said that if you look at a man's checkbook, it doesn’t take long to
see what he values and while part of me wants to push back against that because
there are bills to pay, another part of me knows it’s true. Many of us are all in when it's cheap and
easy. In fact, the human race has proven that we have an incredible propensity
for destruction largely because it’s cheap and easy.
Spray
painting a sacred monument doesn’t cost much to the person holding the can. Tearing
down a statue doesn’t cost much for the person that brought the rope. Spewing
hate via pithy graphics on Facebook doesn’t cost much to the sender of the post.
While these displays of holy discontent seem active in the moment, the truth is
they’re largely passive because save for the participant who might snag fifteen
minutes of fame or feel better for a second in time, they really don’t help
anyone else. I mean seriously, what do
you say to the person who thinks they’re helping the cause by acting in such a
cheap and easy way? “Way to kick the
crap out of a piece of bronze?” Or maybe
something like, “You really know how to use a spray can?”
When
you’re talking about affecting real change, cheap and easy rarely gets the job
done because the sad truth about the world we live in is that action and
advocacy come at a cost. Whether it’s
your time or your money or your energy, fighting your holy discontent can stretch
the limits of your resources.
We’re
so quick to toss out an opinion and take a side regarding the things that
bother us to the core, yet many of us are so slow in acting in a way that has
any chance of making a real difference.
Sharing your opinion may make you feel like you’re doing something and
it may gain you some attention, but who is it really helping? The world won’t become a better place until
the day arrives when we’re as quick to leverage our resources toward the cause
of our holy discontent as we are to share our opinion about it.
What
really makes your blood boil? I hope you
have an answer because there’s something you can do about it…
Do you really want to help end
slavery? Check out International Justice
Mission:
Want to help Aids orphans? Check out Horizon International (right here
in Indy): http://horizoninternationalinc.com
Want to help incarcerated men and
women? Check out God Behind Bars:
Want to help those in the chains
of sexual slavery? Check out Red
Umbrella: http://www.redumbrellafund.org
Want to stand against religious
persecution? Check out Samaritan’s
Purse:
Want to help with addiction recovery? Check out Lighthouse Recovery Center (right
here in Indy):
Want to help the homeless? Check out Circle City Relief (right here in
Indy): http://www.circlecityrelief.com
Want to help active duty men and
women? Check out Adopt A Soldier:
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