Everywhere I Turn...

It seems every blog I check, every facebook status I read, the emails I get are all pouring their hearts into trying either to raise money for adoptions, mission trips, orphans, eliminating sex-traficking, HIV, water, fulfilling a worthwhile dream of a child, cancer...the list and needs go on and on. In the midst of trying to raise money for "my own" trip, organization and needs...I just feel so darn tired, worn-out, stretched, and hate to admit it..maybe even a little over-it. The constant in your face of auctions, raffles, selling t-shirts and dare I say it? Yes, the Tacky 4 Africa headbands can leave me overwhelmed and numb. Where do you begin? Where do you stop? Sometimes going on a blog or facebook can spiral into one big guilt trip or justification rant..... Am I doing enough? If I get a haircut or buy a new pair of boots and post that as my status, will others silently think (but never admit) "oh, she can spend $100 on shoes, but screw the orphans". Or then there's the opposite..."I'm so sick of people using Facebook as a way to put in everyone's faces what they feel we should be doing , but aren't...Screw them, I'm going to hide all future comments from those people ."

Is it just me? Am I the only one who struggles with this? I have given more money and raised more money via the web. I have learned about more causes, organizations and needs than I would have ever known about from this crazy social media thing. I have also been left feeling like I can never do enough or give enough or care enough too. I have found myself rallying for causes that I never thought I would. I get caught up in the excitement of a group effort to make a difference. I find myself caring about people I have never met and giving to efforts that I have never heard of.

Yes, the needs are great and everywhere you turn it seems there is something else to support.
If I step back though and sort through the politics that tends to happen in non-profits and just see it for what it is...It's family. It's not this cause or that, my ministry or theirs, this families adoption or that family, it's not about just maternal health care, orphan care, adoption ministries, street kids, prison help, medical care......It's about something more. Something beyond ourselves and our abilities...So, as easily as I can get get overwhelmed by all the needs including my own that seem to pound on me daily...I know I can't help them all, but I can help one and doggoneit I can buy a pair of boots too (if I had the money for them:). My point is, it's so easy to get caught up in the big, huge, unseemly and unchangeable problem of poverty itself and the masses that are trapped under it all....that we often feel so inadequate to even try to make a difference and are too paralyzed or possibly hardened to just look for the one. The one person, the one cause, the one act of kindness that will change not only the receiver, but the one who took the time and effort to see one person in the sea of faces and inspite of not being able to help them all....reached their heart and hand, out to at least one and changed both lives forever.

I love seeing all the pleas and requests on FB....overwhelming they can be, and yes... sometimes a little guilt ridding...the thing is...I see hundreds of people choosing to ignore the masses and focus on the one person, the one issue, the one cause that they feel lead to and that is incredible.

I encourage you to find something you are passionate about. I encourage you to believe that you can make a difference and have cute boots:)

just don't get so overwhelmed by the causes you see that you tune out and don't tune out to all the causes you see because you think what you can do won't matter...it will.

Trust me..for every dollar I get...I do the hallelujah dance