To feel sorry for the needy is not the mark of a Christian – to help them is. Frank A. Clark
Look around and you will find poverty and pain in plentiful and the sight gnaws your conscience, disturbs your sense of fairness and provokes a rage within your heart. Alas, the feeling lasts for a definite time frame in which you deeply sympathize, loudly criticize the system and conveniently rationalize the whole episode as a reality that cannot be singlehandedly resolved. The problem is that the whole gamut of emotions, the train of the thought process and the ultimate indifference are logical and not restricted to a few but is the norm that has defined the ruthlessness of society at large and we as individuals in particular. The real question is can we make a difference in any other way?
To be fair to the vast majority, it is difficult for us as individuals to visualize us making a substantial contribution to what is largely perceived as a humongous problem. With this mind set, the best we can possibly do is sympathize and as a mark of empathy articulate our feeling aloud or casually donate some alms for the rehabilitation of the unfortunate. In this process we achieve the twin objectives of easing our conscience of a burden and simultaneously feeling nice that we have proactively done our wee bit for a cause. The problem for vast majority is that none of us want to make a definite commitment to any cause for that involves us investing our time and money without any commensurate return. The reality though is that unless we commit ourselves we can never appreciate the rewards of our self belief for they are incalculable, difficult to express and can only be experienced personally.
The right way to approach our concerns is to focus on how as an individual we can lend our shoulder to the task on hand. If there are sufficient people committed, it is but obvious that the momentum will automatically pick up and together the goal will be realized. No sooner we isolate our efforts and try to perceive it on a standalone basis we get demoralized and disheartened that the task is huge and our contribution will be insignificant. Once we can see the big picture then it is critical that we restrict our commitment to our abilities and then being once committed give our all to the task. E.g if we are concerned about the lonely elderly who live a forlorn existence because the children have migrated or they have no family to speak about, then decide if this is really what we feel most strongly about. We should not be distracted by the plight of orphanages or AIDS victims etc for we cannot spread ourselves thin.
Most times we are constrained by the tunnel vision of what our role is and we cannot think beyond spending our time and our money. The reality is that in addition to these, one can contribute his / her talents to the cause in many varied ways. Perhaps being a zealous evangelist for the cause is one of the biggest contribution that one can make. This is as simple as talking about your pet cause, spreading awareness about it, cajoling others to join the cause etc. One can also function as a facilitator for our pet cause by suggesting the names of potential sponsors, direct enthusiastic people towards our cause e.g college students doing a social service project or corporate looking to sponsor something as part of their CSR. One can use our talent of writing skills or speaking skills to propagate the movement. Suddenly sympathy seems to be a very primitive way to express our deep concerns and participation in the process is obviously the way forward.
Remember: Some people want it to happen, some people wish it could happen, others make it happen.
Try this:
- Specify your pet social service cause. Now list out 3 different ways that you can contribute to the cause without spending any of your money or committing more than 1 hour of your time per week to that cause.
- Specify what is the amount of financial resources that you can raise for the cause (without committing any of your own money) Now work out at least 3 different fund raising programs/ activities/ sponsors and try to exceed your own target.
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
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