This past Sunday, I was invited to share a little bit about at First Hamilton Christian Reformed Church in the Durand neighbourhood. During the service, the pastor mentioned a quote from a wise man from the early 1900s named G.K.
Chesterton. When I got home I looked the quote up, so I could store it in my mind correctly. When faced with the question, “What is wrong with the world?” Chesterton said: “I am.
” As I read a little more about this attributed quote, I learned that this statement was made within an exploration of the limits of politics and how we can only expect limited world healing, transformation and peace to come with the help of political leanings, will and work. Seems like that reality applies as much today as it did then. If I can’t expect my political leaders to make my world right, then I want to learn how I can at least be a small part of “what’s right with the world.
” That first forces me to consider how Chesterton’s quote may be true in my life. Is it true that I may somehow be “what’s wrong with the world?” I am “what’s wrong with the world” when my convenience trumps compassion and I charge ahead with my own goals for the day when Sandy wants just a bit of my precious time to chat because she’s feeling left out of a goal-driven society. I am “what’s wrong with the world” when I get caught up in my ideas for solutions and don’t listen well to my friend Gord who actually lives in a tent.
What about you? Are you maybe too worried about your own reputation, or your own comfort, to invest deeply enough to actually make a transformational difference? As Chesterton said, “Until I can give that answer (that I am what is wrong with the world), my idealism is only a hobby.” Hobbies don’t generally change the world. How can I change, so that my idealism can actually have traction and I can make attempts at being “what’s right with the world?” A first step is to listen and learn.
I can be open to other ways of thinking. Helping Hands Street Mission is planning an opportunity to listen and learn by hosting an immersive art experience called “We’re All Neighbours Here.” This will be an opportunity for all of us to walk through an artistic depiction of an encampment and listen to voices that are usually drowned out.
Plan to come to this event, and be open to learning to see things differently through the artistic work and represented stories of folks with lived experience with homelessness and extreme poverty. The event is happening on Oct. 17, 18 and 19 and tickets are available now at .
This is one small step in the right direction that is available to everyone. What is wrong with the world? I am, but I don’t want to be, and by listening and learning I am taking small steps to become what’s right with the world instead..
