The view out my front window grants me a look at Iowa's winter landscape. A think blanket of snow covers the ground. The trees stand stark and barren in their slumber. Nature lies 'resting in the arms of Morpheus' all around me. Winter is a quiet season for me as a gardener. It's a time for me to rest and plan for the coming springs' labor of sowing and tending as I work towards the harvest. Today, as I gaze outside, I find this landscape to be reminiscent of another wintry presence that surrounds me, but with several distinct differences. The slumbering ice cover of winter outside is natural and necessary. The other frosty aspect is entirely unnatural and in direct hindrance to what is needed. Another contrast between the two types of bitter cold, is that while I can be assured that winter will pass, spring will come and the yearly cycle of seasons will continue, this other coldness can stretch on indefinitely. As for my response to the two, I embrace the winter outside as a season of rest. The other coldness, the incapacitating frigidity of apathy I reject outright.
It allows someone to close their eyes to the gnawing
emptiness that fills the 870 MILLION people who
will go to sleep hungry tonight.
will go to sleep hungry tonight.
It persuades a person to pay no mind to the fact that 6.6 MILLION children under the age of five will die this year, many of completely preventable causes.
It lulls a conscious to sleep as they are told that
some 27 MILLION people suffer under the yoke of
slavery in our world today.
Apathy is a prime weapon of the Enemy against the human soul. It is the most formidable armament that I have come across in the fight for justice. Wielded skillfully it can drive a person's natural compassion into a catatonic state, rendering them inactive towards lifting their fellow humans out of whichever misery plagues them. Statements such as the following haunt me as I fight to gain a foothold in the climbing of the mountain of injustice before me....
"It's not my problem..."
"Someone else will take care of it...."
"I have my own concerns to worry about..."
How can I fight this. How can I begin to melt the apathy of winter around me to see a springtime awakening of interest take its place. Once interest has sprouted from the thawed soil of the heart it can grow through the summer of empathy. And empathy can be cultivated and tended and take us to reaping a crop of action for the harvest. But how do we begin, how do we melt the ice of apathy covering the hearts of those around us? The same way we melt any ice... we melt it with heat, with passionate fiery heat. Ice cannot stand against fire. Consider this quote from social reformer William Lloyd Garrison:
mountains of ice about me to melt."
--William Lloyd Garrison
Mountains of ice about us to melt. What an image! Now the question: How do we wield that fire and ignite the world around us to thaw those icy peaks...
A couple ways to start:
I knew for a very long time that I was called to advocate for social justice, and I wasted so many years trying to get to a starting place. I blinded myself to the fact that I was, in fact, already at the starting point and I needed to just go, to begin, to take the first step out on the journey. I have used this quote before in this blog, and it is one that particularly speaks to me....
“You never know what's around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing.You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.” --Tom Hiddleston
I've taken a great many steps since I first saw this quote on Pinterest back in December. It served as quite a launching pad for me to get active, and I encourage you, reader, start taking steps from where you are at, don't worry about where you will end up. Just go. Reminds me of a conversation between Sam and Frodo in "Lord of the Rings"
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
Take the steps. Keep stepping. This life should be an adventurous journey anyway, might as well make it count.
2. Educate yourself
Head over to the resource page from International Justice Mission and start learning. Then share what you learn. Awareness is the bridge from apathy to empathy. No one is going to care until they are first aware.
IJM Resources
3. We must feed our fire.
Networking with others is vital to our own flame. Fires naturally burn themselves out if they are not fed. Join with others in your area who share the same passion and help each other keep your flames burning. A great place to start is the International Justice Mission Freedom Commons. You can join up, log in and find already existing groups in your state. If there is no group near you, they have tools and resources for starting one. Click on this link and check it out.
Freedom Commons
And Finally, consider this quote from Benjamin Franklin
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected
are as outraged as those who are.”
— Benjamin Franklin
If you are in need of more information or have questions, please comment or send me a message. You can follow me on twitter @andiebeth76
REJECT APATHY--JOIN THE FIGHT
