How to Change the World

As hurricane Sandy, the Frankenstorm, has pelted the eastern seaboard in recent days we’ve been inundated with statistics about how many people have lost their homes, their lives, their electricity, etc. The list goes on and on. But even before that recent and pretty epic tragedy there were already plenty of statistics for us to deal with. Many of us can quote the numbers of children who die each day or year from malaria, malnutrition, AIDS and so on. We have statistics on virtually every subject imaginable. In fact, we have a whole world of statistics. The western world seems to like them because they are easy to quote on the nightly news or in government reports. They impress us in documentaries and fund raising literature. We love our statistics because they’re informative and concise and they boil down enormous issues and problems into digestible morsels of data, the way scientific notation condenses nearly incomprehensible numbers into representations that we can at least pretend to understand. But we also like statistics because they are safe. They can impress and influence us without our having to deal emotionally with actual starving children or sick people or combat casualties or rape victims. Nice round numbers insulate us from the pain and suffering of strangers, the atrocities of conflict, and the devastation of disasters. Statistics move us just enough to encourage our donations or votes, without forcing us to get our hands dirty. They tie desperate needs and overwhelming social issues into nice, tidy packages that we can respond to without getting too flustered.

However, it’s extremely difficult to love a number. We can feign passion, but true compassion requires action. The fact is that we can never actually change the world by simply throwing money at statistics, for they are but the shadowy reflections of much deeper issues. Laurie Beshore, the author of the book “Love Without Walls” recently put this in perspective for me when she said, “Behind every number is a name. Behind every name is a face, Behind every face is a person. And behind every person there is a story.” In the end, we can never change the numbers unless we change people’s individual stories. Writing a check helps. But the only way to actually change the world is to step into people’s lives and care about them individually. We have to learn their names, hear their stories and intervene in those stories. It makes us feel good to write a little check and send it to some organization, and we absolutely should do that. But if that is all we do then we are, in a very real sense, simply subcontracting our compassion. If you actually want to change the world you have to love people individually and make a difference in their lives individually. Programs can never change the world. Politics can never change the world. Only love actually changes the world. And it happens on the front lines … one person at a time.

So the question is are you going to change the world, or is someone else just doing all the work on your behalf? If there’s a tug of some kind on your heart right now I beg you to respond to it. Don’t just read the statistics. Do something about it. Actually, personally, inconveniently, selflessly do something about it. This is your call to get involved in the solution. I’m sharing two poems below which I hope may provide some inspiration to take action. The first recaps what I’ve written above, perhaps in a form you can share with others. The second explains why I care so much. Perhaps it’s also one to share with others. Now, let’s go change the world. Because together, we can make a difference.

The Face Behind the Number

We read all of the statistics

Or we hear them on T.V.

And they move us for a moment

But that fades so rapidly

Because we cannot love statistics

Or connect with what they mean

When we are isolated from them

And their objects are unseen

But behind every statistic

Is a name, a face, a life

Every number is a person

Who knows pain and fear and strife

And every person has a story

As unique as fingerprints

Which no statistic could do justice

Being but the merest hint

So if we want to change the numbers

We have to know the names

See the faces, touch the lives

From which each statistic came

We must befriend the people

Embrace them individually

Bind our lives to theirs and intervene

In their stories lovingly

That is how we change the world

For no statistic can be changed

Until we change each person’s story

Because each number has a name

                By Frank Carpenter ©

The Least of These

I know that look, the look of pain

I've seen it time and time again

In the eyes of children on the street

And people who just need to eat

I've seen it on the tired and old

Whose lives were spent on fool's gold

And lonely people everywhere

Who simply want someone to care

It's the face of poverty and need

Of famine, flood and tyrant's greed

The face that haunts me in the night

And even in the broad daylight

Imploring me to stop and care

Instead, I pass and blindly stare

Ahead, to comfort and security

And away from those who so need me

My pristine little world is safe

From homeless beggar and starving waif

But not from God, whom I asked in

Whose voice I hear above the din

Who pierces hardened hearts like mine

And melts the ice of stubborn minds

And calls me to reach out and care

For those in need and in despair

For Jesus feels every tear

He knows each pain and every fear

Those with hunger, heart ache and disease

Jesus knows the least of these

So if I turn my back on them

I have, in fact, done so to him

For only by the way I care

Will people know that God is there

Lord, break my heart and bend my knees

That I may love the least of these

                 By Frank Carpenter ©

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