People say, "What good can one person do? What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time. We can be responsible only for the one action of the present moment. But we can beg for an increase of love in our hearts that will vitalize and transform all our individual actions, and know that God will take them and multiply them, as Jesus multiplied the loaves and the fishes.
- Dorothy Day
from Loaves and Fishes
How many times I have asked myself...what's the point? What's the point in me recycling a can, paying more for organics, scootering instead of driving? After all, this is a city in which people freely toss cans and bottles in the garbage can (unthinkable to most west-coasters), a nation in which most people strive to find the best bargain on foodstuffs, a population who believes it to be their unalienable right to drive the biggest gas-guzzlers possible. What good does my individual effort really do?
Some days I'm tempted to just let go of the fight. Washing my tin cans is so much more time consuming than tossing them in the garbage sack, and if I didn't pay so much for my groceries, I could probably afford more shoes. When thoughts like these cross my mind, it makes me realize that these choices I make really do stem from my faith, in particular my biblical sense of justice.
God grants us life. God allows us the freedom to choose, from choosing faith right on down to choosing to drink from a disposable water bottle. But God also tells us, over and over, to care for the poor. To do all we can for those that have the quietest voice. To DO justice. I am fortunate enough to both have a voice and be able to make choices. What kind of faith would I be living if I were to not consider the rest of the world, who has no ability to protest when their soils are degraded, their staple food prices too high to purchase, or their waters are polluted?
And so, bit by bit, I consciously make choices that I often feel have absolutely no impact on the wider world. I'm trying to make them more and more, but it's extremely difficult some days (after all, I really do love shoes). But when I interact with others making those small contributions, I'm reminded that I'm not alone. And God gave me a voice. Others may tire of hearing it, but it's a call, a mission, a ministry.
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Now playing: Sherwood - We Do This To Ourselves
via FoxyTunes
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