High Hopes

Moving Mountains

“His is not a problem to be solved, but a truth to be lived, the truth that our highest hopes often die aborning.”

                                  Parker Palmer (The Active Life)

Yesterday, a young American woman named Jeanne Cross spoke at my church. She looks to be in her mid-twenties and has been working with girls in Nepal who have been victims of human trafficking. She is visiting churches in the US to raise money to establish a shelter for such girls in Malaysia. Did you know that human trafficking is a 32-billion dollar industry, second only to the drug trade in terms of criminal enterprise. It involves 2-million people worldwide, half of them children. And the US is a superhighway for trafficking. Who knows whether this young woman will be successful in raising the money for her ministry; the cost is high: $3,200.00 a month. The great thing is that she is stepping out in faith that while she cannot stop this heinous crime, she can make a difference in the lives of the girls who manage to escape or are rescued. She is courageously following her convictions.

Sometimes, like Jeanne, we start out life with a sincere desire to make a difference in the world. We work hard, sacrifice mightily, and perhaps achieve a little. We move the bar a few inches. It's easy to lose heart when our great plans for a better world are not reached. Sometimes we see those few inches as failure, but they are not. Whatever we achieve or don't achieve, if we have a positive impact on only one person, or a few, they will then pick up the bar and move it another inch or two. This is how things change—like ants moving a mountain. It may be slow, but eventually, the mountain is gone.

Our challenge is to jump into the abyss in faith that this is what we are called to do. Our highest hopes may die aborning, but other hopes may be kindled in the process, other fires set that will drive change. The world is already a better place because Jeanne Cross is in it.

                                                    In the spirit,

                                                        Jane

You can read about Jeanne's ministry at thefellowship.info/jeannecross