What part do we each play?
Recently, I have been reading two different books; “Something Needs to Change: An Urgent Call to Make Your Life Count” written by David Platt, and “When We Walk By” written by Kevin F. Adler and Donald W. Burns.
Both of these books take a look at our world from the perspective of those less fortunate and how we deal with them and ourselves. Platt’s book looks at it from the perspective of roaming around the poor villages of the Himalaya Mountains while the Adler/Burns’ book looks at our own cities and the homeless poverty that seems to be an epidemic. Each book will make you take a profound look at yourself and the part you play in not only the world, but in your own community.
It seems that there is an increased need throughout the world for help. In the past those needs always seemed to be visuals from elsewhere based on news coverage we witnessed on TV, in the newspaper, or in periodicals like Time Magazine of Life Magazine (remember them). But now, we see more and more of these sorts of things right here in our own backyard.
Recently, I have been holding some meetings with community leaders throughout Milam County and the region to discuss the problem of mental health, drug use, and homelessness right here in Milam County.
These problems are becoming a heavier load on our public resources and have been increasingly exacerbated first by COVID and then by the lack of a national immigration policy following the presidential orders signed into effect on Jan. 20, 2021.
The sad fact is that these issues have been around for a long time but have grown a great deal in the last few years and like most problems that arise in the public arena, there are solutions. The difficult part of fixing these issues is not finding those solutions, it’s the follow-through – that’s where each of us come in.
A few weeks ago in this column, I discussed service and how we need people to serve in a public capacity whether that’s as an elected official or just a concerned, active American.
We all have a good idea of what could be done to help solve these issues, but how many of us find reasons to shy away from being a part of that solution. How many of us have the resolve to be that person who will step up. Whether it’s something as large-scale as helping with the homeless issue, or as seemingly routine as helping in the local food pantry, what are each of us doing to help our communities and in doing so the world we live in.
Now don’t take this week’s article wrong, I’m not here to lay down some holier-than-thou guilt trip. The Lord knows I am guilty of this at times myself and while it might be unpopular to say this, I believe many of these problems of society can be attributed to the same issues that keep so many of us out of church pews on Sunday. And while not all of us can be like Isaiah and respond with “Here I am! Send Me,” we should all want to.
Maybe we can’t all play a major part in the solutions and maybe some of us don’t have the ability to do all we want to, but we can all take care of our own backyard at a personal level and in doing so we can make a difference on a larger level. We just have to play a part.