Give.Live.Love.

To give genuinely exposes you to the threat of being taken advantage of. Sharing what you have takes sacrifice to an extent that is risky. There is no guarantee what the outcome will be. There may not even ever be an outcome at all. It's all so sketchy. But that shouldn't stop you from giving. You could get hit by a truck on I-4 driving to work in the morning, but that shouldn't stop you from driving to work every day. Results should never dictate our giving.

To be passionate about something leaves you exposed to being rejected and discouraged. There is little worse than the feeling of rejection and failure. All the emotion, the questions, the self doubt, the fear. But does the potential for all those negative things out weigh the benefit of caring? I don't think you can cease to care about anything at all, for the rest of your life. I just don't think that's possible. But I do think its possible to not care enough to act. True love yields action.

To love deeply is allowing yourself to be open to being hurt deeply. The more intense the love, the greater the pain that comes from disappointment. While this is inevitable, knowing that it is only a matter of time before you get hurt, doesn't seem to lessen the injury at all. Disappointment is only a small fraction of what can come from loving. And the bad doesn't hold a candle to the good love offers. It's love that defines us.

Without doing these things you're not really living at all. You're merely existing. Without loving, and caring, and giving, and sharing, you're not living richly. You're just taking up space. So I say:

Give genuinely.
Live passionately.
Love deeply.

Service with a Smile (sort of)

The question: Why do you find the same faces in service?

This is a question I don't have the answer to. I have some theories, but am pretty sure there has to be more to it than my speculations. Because if only those assumptions were true, we could find a solution to our shortage on selfless actions.

My theories:
1) There is a very small group of people that happen to be passionate about people (that is, people other than themselves). And since that group is small, you see the same people doing all the work in the many different service projects there are.

Aside: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead. Though I believe that quote, I also believe that if you have a small, committed group, after a long enough period of time they will get burnt out. Then there will be no one to take their place. And where will we be?

2) People are too selfish to care. They are satisfied with feeling justified in their supposedly already 'busy' lives by saying there's just not enough time to help. Yet the reason there's no more time is because they spent all their time on themselves, their families, their obligations, their work. Is there a theme here? (here's a clue: count how many times you see "their" above)

3) There are no new projects to help with. Okay, that was sarcasm. People are full of excuses as to why they don't spend time in service. But why does anyone feel the need to excuse their actions? Most of the time excuses are used is when something wrong was done.

Assuming these theories were true, you would think we could use them to create a better situation. To overcome a problem you need to understand why there is a problem. The problem in this case is that there are not enough people helping others. And that yields a ton of other problems I don't really want to go into. But I can't understand WHY that problem even exists. There are so many rewards that come with helping others. You feel good about what you've done, they feel good because you've met a need that maybe they couldn't, others are inspired...there are just so many positives. So I just don't get it.

And honestly, I'm sick of guilting individuals into doing things that are good for other people. I'm tired of convincing friends, acquaintances, and strangers to do the right thing. I'm fed up with coercing the richly blessed to sacrifice for the sake of the less fortunate. I'm exhausted at the attempt of doing it all by myself. And I hate the fact that I've mentioned "I" seven times in this paragraph when this issue is not about me at all! It's bigger than me, and its bigger than you.