This book tells the story of the start and growth of the nonprofit organization Blood:Water, which is now a million-dollar charity that was apparently founded by a 20 year old college student. I kind of started this book thinking it would be an inspirational account of what one person with enough motivation and compassion can do to make the world a better place. That narrative appeals to me. I identified a lot with the author in the earlier part of the book when she was an idealistic college kid with a deep desire to help those less fortunate. It was harder to identify with her when she actually did something with that desire, because I never really managed to get to that part. But I want to, so I was looking for inspiration, which brought me to this book.
Yet I ended up finishing the book with a different takeaway. Towards the end of the book, I started identifying with the author once again. Not to spoil anything, but the end point is stated in the subtitle of the book, so here goes. At some point, she starts becoming disillusioned. With the work which doesn't seem to be making a dent in the world's problems, with her faith which was initially an inspiration but later led to discouragement when other believers took problematic approaches to poverty relief efforts and the people they serve, with some of her partners in the relief work who made selfish and unethical choices. At some point, she just could not hold onto her original passion and idealism. She was close to giving it all up.
But instead she found a better way. A "third way" as she called it, which is "neither idealism nor cynicism." She summed it up in this way: “The other option would be to choose to enter the world still, knowing what you know. That means believing that it is better to do something than to do nothing. That justice somewhere is better than justice nowhere. You can choose proximate mercy for a certain group of people, even though you know that as hard as you try, you will not be able to achieve all you set out to achieve in the world.”
“It means you’ve decided to be honest about the world. And still live by hope.”
I think this message is what sets this book apart from others like it for me. The weight of all the problems in the world seem beyond hope. I've long felt a strong conviction to help in some way with poverty relief, yet I've been discouraged by my own inaction and failure to do anything of substance in that area. And because of my own pride, I've been even more discouraged by other people's (and especially other Christians) apparent apathy to the suffering of poor and disadvantaged populations. And because I am a Christian, I've been confused and frustrated that God apparently allows all this (I am familiar with the various positions on the issue of theodicy and obviously found what I consider to be an acceptable explanation or else I wouldn't still be a Christian; but still, that doesn't mean it's never a struggle).
The author's journey through her own thoughts and fears in this way didn't fix all the problems I want to see fixed or resolve all the hard questions that are nagging at me. But it did reinforce a sense of hope. Maybe not that everything will get better, but that trying to make it better is still worthwhile. I don't really know how to convey what I'm trying to say, so I'll just end this review with a few of my favorite quotes from this book:
"I had once thought hope was easy—belief in the good came easily to me. Now I realize it was passion that came easily."
"True hope is always hard. It is not a passive wishing. It is an active exercise, a choice, an intention."
"This way of looking at the world means admitting that at some point along our vocational journey, we will not feel the rush of serving as we did once, but we will stay with it anyway. It means admitting that the world is indeed a hard place to live, and it will likely break our heart if we keep engaging with it, but we will choose to hope anyway. It means admitting over and over, sometimes every day, Yes, the pain of this journey is real. Let’s keep climbing anyway. And, for me, it means accepting that even the place that raised me, the church, would cause pain, but I would love it anyway."
"We do believe that the world changes when we give love lavishly. We hold fast to the hope that someday all things will be renewed."
"I lost a lot of myself as I climbed: the unshakable faith of my youth, the belief in the right intentions of others, the simple assumptions of how to do good in the world. Even now, I carry a quiet grief over the loss of the idealism I held as a young adult. It was what fueled me to keep going, and I miss that straightforward resolve."
"Some days, I am living out the actions of a faith I don’t feel, trusting the movements and practices to carry me through."
"The good news is that when we care for our proximal part in the world, the God of heaven knits these small pieces together into something beautiful. But we are not called to change the world. We are called to love the world. And to love the world, we are the ones who must change."
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