Not Powerless

I’ve been heartbroken by the headlines lately.

I won’t debate them here.

Plenty of people are doing that.

But sometimes, reading the news brings a sense of helplessness.

We read the stories.

We shake our heads.

We wonder how we got here.

We worry about what happens next.

And, if you’re anything like me, sometimes you close the article and wonder:

What am I supposed to do about any of this?

All too often, I’m left overwhelmed and unsure.

Like last week.

Then, last Thursday, I attended an Impact Tour with the Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle (MTWGC), an organization I’ve been blessed to be part of for several years.

The MTWGC is now in its ninth year.

Women from our community pool their gifts, learn about the needs around us, and then collectively decide where those gifts can make the greatest difference for women, children, and families.

Over the years, we've given more than $850,000 to local nonprofit organizations.

Every penny members contribute is granted back into the community.

But last Thursday, the 850K wasn’t what struck me.

The people were.

People doing the work.

People who see needs most of us never see.

People who know the woman who needs help.

The child who needs protection.

The family barely holding itself together.

People who don’t just shake their heads and say, “Someone should do something.”

They choose to do THE something.

And sitting there, listening and learning from a few of the organizations that have received our grants, I couldn’t help thinking about the headlines that have me so disturbed.

Because headlines are very good at telling us what is wrong with the world.

They aren’t nearly as good at reminding us how much good is quietly happening in it.

There probably won’t be a breaking-news banner for the volunteer who gives up an afternoon every week.

No reporter will show up when someone writes a check to a local nonprofit.

Nobody is likely to interview the woman who quietly brings diapers, groceries, or school supplies to a family who needs them.

There won't be a headline when a woman and her children are provided a safe place to live.

But those things matter.

More than we realize.

I know the MTWGC focuses specifically on women, children, and families, and right now, perhaps because of the headlines that have been weighing on me, that mission feels particularly important.

But I also know something else.

People need support.

All people.

Supporting one does not require us to care less about another.

Compassion isn't a finite resource.

And helping people shouldn't require us to choose a political side.

It simply requires us to notice.

Then to act.

Mother Teresa understood that better than most.

She could not eliminate poverty.

She could not end suffering.

She could not possibly care for every person who needed her.

So she cared for the person in front of her.

There is something incredibly freeing about that.

Because sometimes the problems of this world feel so enormous that we convince ourselves there is nothing we can do.

We cannot fix all of it.

But that does not mean we can do nothing.

Maybe your way of helping isn't a giving circle.

Maybe it is volunteering.

Maybe it is serving at a food pantry.

Maybe it is supporting an organization that helps women in crisis, individuals with disabilities, families struggling with addiction, people without homes, foster children, veterans, the elderly, or someone whose need happens to intersect with something that has touched your own life.

Maybe you have money to give.

Maybe what you have is time.

Or expertise.

Or connections.

Or an extra seat at your table.

Maybe what you have is simply the willingness to show up.

I can't donate $850,000.

But I belong to a community of women who, collectively, can.

That's what happens when “somebody should do something” becomes “I'll do something.”

Through the MTWGC, donors can give to the many different Catholic entities of the Houma-Thibodaux Diocese.

We take what we have, pool it together, and put it into the hands of people already doing the work.

Yes, the headlines will keep disappointing me.

Some may frighten me.

Others might make me angry.

Many will break my heart.

And some will do all of the above.

Like last week.

And plenty of headlines will leave me wondering what it all means for the world we're handing to the people who come after us.

Again, like last week.

So much is out of my control.

And yours.

But we can control what happens in our little corner of the world.

We can notice.

We can give.

We can volunteer.

We can encourage.

We can show up.

We can love the person in front of us.

We are not powerless.

The headlines tell us what's wrong with the world.

They don't get to decide what we do about it.

Click here to learn more about the Mother Teresa Women’s Giving Circle.