I get a book in the mail yesterday. ‘This is no time to be reading a book,’ I think. I’m in deadline. My deadline has passed me by, but my deadline goal has not been met. I am not ready to send the new (July/August/September) issue to the printer. I haven’t sold enough ads to move forward. It’s a hard position to be in and I hate being there. What I do is I keep doing my best to sell ads. I keep the issue “open” and make contact with every potential advertising customer I can think of.
I’m glad that, through the course of struggling to keep this magazine going, that I’ve come upon the idea of “the whole kitchen sink.” I can now sell an ad to anyone with a decent product and never feel like I’m on the over-balanced-in-my-favor “winning side.”
Yes, Charlie Sheen, you’re “winning!”
I’ve developed a campaign where an advertiser that buys a print ad – any size (including our small business-card sized color ads that go for $135) – gets every single thing we do online advertising-wise (banner ads, email blasts, podcast, social media, text messaging and even online surveys). I know that I’m selling something that will benefit someone. It’s set up to get impact and promote in really effective and track-able ways. I wouldn’t have gotten to this point had I not struggled.
Now, in my defense, back in the old days (you know, last year and prior to that), it wasn’t like I was ripping people off. We had good ad rates that were a “good deal” (according to unbiased potential ad clients that looked at the prices, save for one guy a couple months ago with a “secular” metal label that wanted info. You can’t please everyone). But, if someone selling combs or brushes (forgive me for my “out there” dumb example) wanted to advertise in HM, I would not stop him or her. I’ve told people in the past that I didn’t think such and such an ad would be effective for them, but if someone wanted to advertise in HM (and it wasn’t cigarettes, weed, alcohol, porn, etc), I’d sell ’em an ad. In that case of the brush salesmen, though, I wouldn’t go to sleep thinking they were getting the better part of the deal. I’d think I was getting the better end of the deal and I didn’t have much hope that they’d sell many combs or brushes. (lame example, huh?)
Now, here I am blogging about a book on poverty and I’m going on and on about business stuff. Well, it’s just a long introduction. I’m in deadline and I don’t feel like I can afford the time it takes me to read a book – a 242-page book. But the sub-title intrigued me.
FAST LIVING: How the Church Will End Extreme Poverty
By Scott C. Todd, PhD
While I’m not through with the book yet, I’m inspired. In fact, I’m feeling hints of that goose-bump inducing emotion I’ve felt at times – where I thought the church could and would rise up and actually change the world. It felt possible and the feeling was amazing. I’ve felt this at U2 concerts, where someone or a group of people (and a band) would take a stand to make a difference in the world. They’d make a case to get involved. They’d appeal to our sense of justice and love. They’d appeal to our responsibility as fellow citizens of this earth. People responded. God was praised. People were moved. I’ve seen it happen and it felt like it was beyond the plastic, short-lived emotional high goose-bumps I’d seen in the past. Something was different here. People are being made aware of their neighbors across the oceans, across town and across economic lines.
It’s exciting to think we could actually make a change. Especially when you’ve seen the problem. Most of us have probably “seen” on our computers or television sets how bad extreme poverty and disease and famine can get. I’ve been to Uganda with a great group of people and I’ve seen extreme poverty pretty close up. And I know there’s worse than what I’ve seen.
The guy that wrote this book sounds like my kind of guy. He’s in the field, going places meeting people and working to make a difference. He interacts with people on a human level. He makes friends. He’s moved by stories he’s heard and seen. I’ve enjoyed reading some of them, like the story of a small girl in Tanzania named Jacqueline. Her parents both died of AIDS in front of her. She got AIDS. She was put on a list of kids that would receive the medicine that could heal her. The day before treatment was to begin she died. This knocked the wind out of the author like a punch to the gut. He took it personal. He’s motivated by it.
A guy like this? I’ll read and hear what he has to say. Like I said, he’s on the ground and he’s doing something. He’s not just talking or blogging about it.
I’m what I would call a “Charismatic Christian.” I believe in a God that heals – today, just like in the Bible. I’ve seen miracles. I’ve been on the receiving end of “coincidences” as well as answers to prayer. I think God is alive and that He’s working through His people. Not just in miracles, but in bringing justice, love and kindness to this world. I think that’s God’s heart in action. I think He cares. I do not think He’s aloof, nor uncaring.
I’ve also come to realize that God’s not a genie in a bottle or a Big Man Upstairs that will grant our wishes. I believe He will heal. I believe He will protect. I believe He has assigned angels to our care. I also am aware that not everything happens like I want it to. A bad example: sports. I might pray that God would let me win. I might sprint with all my might to catch the winning pass thrown 50-yards away. I might be in step with a defender. He might tip the ball away. I might drop it. I’m not guaranteed a victory of a playful (yet serious) competitive game. That’s ridiculous. I’m also aware that I can make mistakes. I can fall asleep at the wheel, crash and die. I could swerve to miss a deer and collide head-on with a truck. I could lose a leg in an accident. I could get fired or laid off from a job. A tornado could smack me up against concrete and kill me. Some psycho killer could pick me as a target instead of the next guy. These might sound like obvious facts, but to a miracle-believing Christian they can be devastating or faith-shaking.
These potential risks remind me that I’m not invincible. I could break. So could the person next to me. I’d like to think that I’d help someone who slipped off a cliff or pull someone back that fell into a busy street. I have the capability of destruction and bad choices, but I also have the potential to help, aid, rescue or encourage someone. I can actually do something that will make someone else’s day a little better (or a lot). It’s interesting to me. It sobers me up and makes me think of my responsibility as an ambassador of God.
I probably shouldn’t succomb to “yankee syndrome” and stay inside the embassy or tourist hotel. Yankee Syndrome is a phrase I learned in a Government class at college. It’s a common occurance that a lot of ambassadors and Foreign Service Agents fall into when they are serving in another country. Instead of mingling with the locals and learning more about the community they’re supposed to serve, they stay holed up with their fellow Americans, talking about the Dallas Cowboys football season, favorite restaurants in the Northern Virginia area or how their favorite bands are touring, etc. They focus on the comforts of home and the familiar instead of being stretched and reaching out to and exploring the community (the world around them) that they’re supposed to be serving.
I sure want to be about changing the world. When Jesus talks real practically about what His followers should be doing (in light of the fact that He was about to depart and leave them on the earth to carry on His work), He talked about helping neighbors, feeding the hungry, visiting those in prison. Stuff like that. If we have this great hope in our hearts, we can make it grow and do immeasurable good by sharing it and doing things motivated out of that hope and love.
In the opening chapters of this book, the author shares a common parable that we’ve all probably heard. An adult finds a child on the beach, throwing starfish back into the ocean. “What are you doing?” he’s asked. He explains how the tide has washed them ashore and how they’ll dry up and die outside the water. “But there are starfish spread out all over the beach all over. You’ll never save them all,” the adult tells the child. The child picks up another and tosses it. “I saved that one.”
This is a good story that motivates us to make the difference in one person. Multiplied over and over, more and more get helped. That’s good.
But the author tells another parable. An adult comes upon a child on the beach, taking pictures of starfish with her smart phone. “What are you doing?” the adult asks. She replies, “Uploading pictures of these stranded starfish to my Facebook page and asking friends to Tweet the call to action,” she said. “The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I can get enough friends out here, we can get all these starfish back into the water before sunset.”
“What does Tweet mean?” the man asked.
The girl rolled her eyes. She bent down, picked up a starfish and threw it back into the surf. Then she gave the man a wry, twinkly-eyed smile and said, “If you want to help out, this is how you do it.”
Within hours, thousands of children stormed the beach and every starfish was rescued.
That’s exciting, but it doesn’t stop there.
The Star Thrower story might continue:
As the last starfish was tossed into the ocean, the children celebrated their accomplishment on the beach. It had been a good day – for them and for the starfish.
But not all of them played. One boy faced the water, deep in thought.
The little girl approached him and asked, “What’s up?”
Still gazing into the distance of ocean and imagination he said, “How’d it happen in the first place?”
Turning to face the girl, eyes locking with hers in resolve, he continued. “And how do we make sure it never happens again?”
This is the introduction that perhaps taps onto one of the keys we have at our disposal. Beyond technology, the author talks about expectations. Expectations are like hope with more confidence. Hope might be wishing for the impossible. Expectations are hoping for something that we expect to happen.
I know that Jesus told His disciples, “…the poor you will always have with you.” We know that the context of the story was Jesus telling His disciples to come hang out with Him. He wanted to “huddle up” and be close. His time was short. One of the disciples made a statement of rebuttal. He suggested they help the poor instead. That’s when Jesus basically said, “You’ll always have the poor, but I ain’t got much time. Get over here and let’s hang out while we have the time. You can help the poor again later.”
This verse is used to quench our hope and lower our expectations. “There’s always going to be poverty.” But Jesus didn’t use the phrase “extreme poverty.” Poverty, it would be safe to say, is not having enough to get by. Extreme poverty, perhaps, is not having enough to survive. Extreme poverty brings you closer and closer to death by disease, because the provision is not there to prevent disease and danger. Extreme poverty means early death. Poor might mean you don’t get to wear nice clothes, see the coolest concerts or own a cell phone. I’ll go along with the idea that we’ll always have poor and we’ll always have rich and there will not be equality among the classes for the duration of the human race. But extreme poverty is different than plain old “poor.”
Extreme poverty will make you cry. It will make you stop taking the things (like healthy water to drink and bathe in) for granted. I won’t be surprised if the author tackles this subject (that oft-quoted verse about the poor always being around) in this book. I’m only on chapter 5.
What the book promises, though, is a plan on how we (the church) can end extreme poverty. I think he spells out a plan on how to do this in 25 years or less. I believe the guy. I’m anxious to hear how it can be done and I’m eager to get involved. Ending extreme poverty would be an amazing thing and being able to prevent it from happening again would be awesome. I think we have the numbers to do it. If people join together and a movement is born, a lot can be accomplished. I’m stoked.
I’ll be reviewing this book (Lord willing) for this next issue (which I hope to acheive in less than 6 days, yikes!). It’s coming out under an imprint of Compassion International called 58: Fast. Forward. The End of Poverty. It’s patterned after Isaiah chapter 58.
Resource:
Orbitz promotional codes are often available for humanitarian service.
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