True Bliss (Lesson 3 From India)
March 9, 2013
[My ongoing journey in coming to terms with
my awkwardness of living in a poor and needy world]
Thomas Gray, the 18th century English Scholar and Poet, coined the phrase, ‘Ignorance is bliss!’ He sure has a point! I find it easier to pretend not to notice the beggar on the street; easier not to live ‘green’; and easier to ignore many news headlines.
I find it easier not to look at the needs of the world.
If we don’t look, then we won’t see.
If we don’t see, then we won’t know.
If we don’t know, then we won’t be moved.
If we are not moved, then we won’t have to do anything about it.
It will be bliss!
Annoyingly, that bliss will be but fake because it can only exist in a fantasy world devoid of needs. In reality, until Jesus comes back, our world will always be troubled and overwhelmed by needs. Thirty-nine million people in this world are blind. 90% of whom live in developing countries. Whilst it is amazing that 4 out of 5 of them can have their blindness economically treated (e.g. by cataract surgery) or prevented (e.g. by vitamin A), it saddens me that that means that there are 31 million people whom we can help but are not helping, and who as a result are suffering needlessly! Needs like these overwhelm me. I’d rather ignore them and blissfully go to bed.
There were once more than 5000 people listening to Jesus’ teaching. It was getting late and it was too remote for pizza delivery. I could see that the people were hungry and needy. So I said, ‘Jesus, we’d better call it a day and advise the people to go so that they can have a chance to sort themselves out.’
Jesus replied, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’
‘Sorry, what did you say, Jesus? You mean you want to give them something to eat, right? I guess you are God and can do anything… What?!? You want me to give them something to eat. ME? But… there are thousands of them! I don’t have the time, finances, skill, talent, connections or resources to know from where to even begin to try tackle the problem! You cannot possibly expect me to do something about it! I am sorry Jesus but you are being totally unreasonable! It’s crazy! It’s ridiculous! It’s not that I don’t care. In fact, I’d love to be able to help, but come on! The need and demand are obviously way above me. Besides, what if I fail and all my efforts will be for nothing? It takes courage to look, see, know, and be moved by the needs of the world, but for what? So that I can hurt with them and offend them with unhelpful sympathy? So that I can feel guilty, helpless and frustrated?!? Seriously Jesus, what can I possibly do?’
‘You give them something to eat.’
Gently and patiently, God is teaching the slow and often reluctant learner that I am, that:
Just because I can’t help everybody doesn’t mean that
I can’t help the one person in front of me, that
Just because I can’t do everything doesn’t mean that
I can’t do something, and that
Just because I can't do more doesn't mean that
I can't start with what I can now.
Abraham Lincoln said, ‘The probability that we might fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a course we believe to be just’. Helen Keller puts it this way, ‘I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.’
God does not call the equipped. He equips the called. There is no need for God to give us something that we currently have no use for. That is why we should not refuse to attempt something just because we are yet to be equipped. God will provide when we have need of it. We may be just some kid with 5 loaves and 2 fish. We may be ashamed of our smallness and embarrassed by the little that we have. What we have may be laughably minuscule, but in God’s hands, what matters is that it is enough. So it is small, but who cares, it is enough! When we put the little that we have in His hands, He will multiply it miraculously, exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever imagine, ask or think, to meet the need, and so much more.
That, I’d say, is bliss.
PS. Thank you for reading my blog. I’d really love to hear your comments and thoughts. For my next blog, I shall talk about some other blissful things, probably food… =)
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