Weight-162 lbs.
The day has finally arrived. I have been looking forward to this moment for a month and a half. Today is the day that the initiative comes to an end and we see if its lessons stick. For those of you who have been reading this blog faithfully…thank you. For those of you who are just tuning in…that’s fine. For those of you who only read the first post and couldn’t read anymore…I’m proud of you. For those of you who let this whole experience touch you…you are the reason why I did it.
Contrary to popular belief this was never about me. There were times when I tried to make it about me, and those were also the times where I felt like the biggest failure. And there were probably lots of reasons for me to feel that way. We didn’t get to $10,000. I didn’t last for 30 days. The blog’s readership hit its highest point at the middle of month and slowly tapered away after that. If I just looked at numbers there is the potential for me to feel like a giant failure. But numbers never really tell the true story. They are always too low or too high and they always make people out to be something they are not. I received an e-mail from a friend of mine today, who had his eyes open just wide enough to understand this. He wrote:
“Poverty is merely a word. It is a word that describes a financial situation, a condition of living, but it does nothing to describe the people found there within. Poverty is what you see in statistics and uncomfortable commercials showing you images of starvation. It is something that people live, something that people suffer, but it is not something that people are. It is a sight to which our initial response can only be, ‘How terrible.’ But, when in and among the life and company of those who suffer from poverty, and when the physical conditions are no longer allowed to define their state of being, poverty is the last thing that is felt. Life abounds. Hope, and faith and spirit radiate, and it is all a spectacle to which one’s initial response can only be, ‘How wonderful. How truly wonderful.’”
To have our eyes open just wide enough to see the beauty of the other, to have our heart softened enough to feel our own power, and to have our mind clear enough to understand the course we must take; these are the reasons why I began this journey. I have been blessed enough to hear so many of you tell me that this thing has got them thinking that I have to realize that the initiative wasn’t a failure at all, because it was never about me, it was about you. The success or failure of this endeavor cannot be measured today. It will be measured in the years to come when I hear about what you are doing to end global hunger.
It is now time for me to let go of the initiative, by giving it to you. It is not just my responsibility anymore. It is now our responsibility. Consider the impact that initiative has had on you. Reply to this post with questions it raised for you, stories about how you engaged the issue, suggestions for the next time I attempt to do something like this, really anything you think is pertinent will be welcomed. I’m looking forward to reading the responses, but more than that I’m looking forward to seeing God’s kingdom come through all of us.
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