Jimmy Carter spilled light in our world. And when my world feels heavy, I remember his pledge, and his invitation. He wrote, “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands—this is not optional—my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”
Here’s what does my heart good; he reminded us that kindness and gentle acts of goodness really do matter. And they make a difference.
No, kindness and empathy are not always easy. Because yes, there are times when we feel at the end of our resources. When that happens, I replay this memory about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Thirteen years ago, I stood in the kitchen of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Parsonage, the home to Dr. King and his family from 1954 to 1960 (At the time, I was part of a pilgrimage to honor Dr. King and the Selma Bridge march).
By the time the Montgomery bus strike was achieving both success and national attention, Dr. King began receiving telephone death threats (as many as 40 a day).
“One night very late around midnight—and you can have some strange experiences at midnight—the telephone rang.” Dr. King relates the story in a later sermon. “On the other end was an ugly voice.”
“For some reason, it got to me. I was weak. Sometimes, I feel discouraged... You can't call on Daddy anymore. You could only call on the Something your Daddy told you about, that Power that can make a way out of no way.”
And at that kitchen table, he prayed. “Lord, I'm down here trying to do what's right... But I must confess... I'm losing my courage.”
King explained what happened next: “I could hear an inner voice saying to me, ‘Martin Luther, stand up for truth. Stand up for justice. Stand up for righteousness.’”
My conundrum? When I see acts of courage I see heroism, and I often don't see myself. Or I see how far I have to go. Or I see how far short I have fallen.
But I do understand tired.
And I do understand discouraged.
And I do understand the end of my resources.
It’s not always easy to look in the mirror, is it?
Maybe because, instead of seeing sufficiency, I see scarcity.
So it is no wonder that there have been times I have quit, emotionally shut down. Capitulated to someone else’s narrative about me. And that’s not fun to admit.
Here’s the deal: whenever I feel depleted, I have forgotten that I get to say how the story ends. I forget the power of choice.
“The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me,” Viktor Frankl’s reminder rings with assurance. “The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.”
The ability to choose, from a power already inside.
And my heart is readily replenished when I read this from John O’Donohue. He writes, “Somewhere in every heart there is a discerning voice. This voice distrusts the status quo. It sounds out the falsity in things and encourages dissent from the images things tend to assume. It underlines the secret crevices where the surface has become strained. It advises distance and opens up a new perspective through which the concealed meaning of a situation might emerge. The inner voice makes any complicity uneasy. Its intention is to keep the heart clean and clear. This voice is an inner whisper not obvious or known to others outside. It receives little attention and is not usually highlighted among a person's qualities. Yet so much depends on that small voice. The truth of its whisper marks the line between honor and egoism, kindness and chaos. In extreme situations, which have been emptied of all shelter and tenderness, that small voice whispers from somewhere beyond and encourages the heart to hold out for dignity, respect, beauty and love.”
(From Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)
So, yes, we do get to choose the kind of world we want to live in.
Let’s begin with Helen Keller’s reminder, “I am one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; And just because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
Taking Mother Teresa’s words to heart, “If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
Bottom line; gratefully, indifference is not an option.
Today, I can choose to be kind. I can choose to be generous. I can choose to be inclusive. I can choose to not demean or shame.
This is not because we get points, or rewards in heaven. We can choose because this is a reflection of who we are, at our core. “This little light of mine.”
I love the work I do; talking, teaching, entertaining. But, if I'm honest, there are times when I wonder why I still do “what” I do. I know that I have choices. But on my darker days I wonder, what difference can I really make?
We know we have choices. What does it matter what I do?
This may be an old story. But I love telling it…
As the old man walks the beach at dawn, he notices a young man picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up to the youth, he asks a simple question, “Why are you doing this?”
The boy answers that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.
“But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish. How can your efforts make any difference?”
The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and threw it to safety—into the ocean past the breaking waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.
Yes, my friend, our choices do make a difference. They matter.
I write Sabbath Moment as a reminder to myself to choose to plant seeds in our world, to cultivate sanctuary, mercy, empathy, inclusion, compassion and kindness… a space where we are refueled to make a difference.
Let us remember John O’Donohue’s invitation to pay attention to “…that small voice (which) whispers from somewhere beyond and encourages the heart to hold out for dignity, respect, beauty and love.” Terry Hershey “Sabbath Moments”
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