How can I put myself if shoes I've never been in? How do I empathize with pain I've never felt? Those are the thoughts that come to mind when I browse different organizations websites that deal with issues of hunger and sickness around the world. Pictures help me imagine, videos help me understand but honestly there is no real compassion. Not enough compassion to ruin my mood, my lunch or my day. It's a definite problem, this difficulty in feeling empathy. In 2006 my sister and I even started a medical mission non-profit. I've served the sick, poor and hungry in Haiti multiple times and still my heart doesn't know how to process other people's struggles. But I've recently had a very liberating thought - an "ah ha" moment and it's this: I don't have to necessarily feel all that much to know when something is right and to act. In fact, many of the disciplines we carry out everyday like getting out of bed, getting dressed, working, remaining faithful in relationships, dealing honestly when no one is looking is NOT based on feeling at all. These things are based on the conscience that is within us all. Some are more finely in tune with their conscience and have built better disciplines, but I believe we all have a built-in "knowing" when something is right and must be done. The pay-off is that sometimes, most of the time, by acting before feeling, the feeling soon follows and floods the heart unexpectedly. I know it has happened in this way for me. I didn't feel like going to Haiti- I was scared and uninspired but I tell you the truth, I never knew what the phrase "it took my breathe away" meant until I knew what it was like to give a gift to someone who really needed it, when they needed it, how they needed it.
I know getting behind and involved in blood:water mission is one of these things in my life. I see the extreme need- people affected with and battling AIDS and in need of basic human neccesitys like water and I see that somehow despite or because of "feelings" and this truth, an organization has been formed to bring these communities together to fight AIDS, build clinics and come up with creative ways to provide water. Communities are not being "saved" by the Americans, but empowered to use the tools that are now available to alleviate some of their discomfort and help them thrive. I like that on the blood:water mission statement page of their website they mention "bringing dignity" to the people they are aiding through telling their stories the way they would want them told. Honoring the people they are working to empower.
When I saw this video on community building it helped not only stir my "feelings" but also present me with logical and practical ways that blood:water is indeed empowering and helping communities come together and help themselves.
I challenge myself and you to look at this through a lens of emotions yes, but also through the lens of clear cut right and wrong, true and right, conscience based thinking that leads us to act by joining their efforts. Read more about them and get involved here: http://www.bloodwatermission.com/communitybuilder/
"When a truth is presented and ignored, it becomes insulted and may not reveal itself to you anymore."
