God’s call daunting but very rewarding

The Rev. Josh Longbottom, associate pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vt.:

I believe that God is a feeling most of all – the feeling inside of us that loves what is good and healthy for ourselves and everyone and everything. Saying yes to that feeling will cause you to step out in vulnerability and will change both you and the world.

In our personal lives, that feeling calls us to be more honest. It will not let us live comfortably without having some meaning and purpose. And it will challenge us in new ways through our personal relationships as long as we live.

In our social lives, God is the call to stand up and be counted on behalf of the orphans, the widows and all who are on the lowest rung of our social ladder. Jesus’ teachings and the Bible generally are very clear that responding to the call of God means putting the last among us first.

Being a person of faith means saying yes to that call over and over again. Saying yes from your heart will unavoidably lead you to social action through charity or advocacy or both. There are too many things wrong in the world. There are too many policies that are either unloving or malicious for anyone who truly cares to let it go on.

God’s call is daunting, but it is also where the rewards of the spiritual journey start. Getting involved means meeting new people and it also gives you a sense of purpose and meaning. No, you can’t do enough to set everything straight, but you sure can try. And when you know that you are trying, the world is a different place.

– Send e-mail to Josh Longbottom at joshlongbottom@sunflower.com.

How do you make a difference for others?

Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, Chabad Jewish Center, 1203 W. 19th St.:

One of the central pillars in Judaism is the eternal sense of responsibility that every human being needs to feel for the world at large. We believe that each individual possesses the unique task to bring light, morality and holiness not only inside his own home, but also outward into the world.

Many times we become discouraged as we think about the problems and troubles facing our world today: economic crisis, terror, environmental damage, natural disasters, countries and continents afflicted by poverty and disease. The impact we can make feels inadequate to the sheer scale of these tragedies. There are 6 billion people on earth. We are no more than a wave in the sea of humanity – how then can you and I make a difference?

Jewish thought has something simple but quite significant to say. We repair the world in small steps, light by light, act by act, day by day. God asks us to do what we can, when we can. Each act mends a fracture of the world.

A youth was picking up starfish stranded by the retreating tide and throwing them back into the sea to save them. A man went up to him and asked, “This beach goes on for miles, and there are thousands of starfish. Your efforts are futile, it doesn’t make a difference!” The boy looked at the starfish in his hand and threw it into the water. “To this one,” he said, “it makes all the difference.”

That story captures a fundamental idea in Jewish thought. We can’t fix the world all at once. We do it one day at a time, one person at a time, one deed at a time. A single life, say our sages, is like a world. Save a life and you save a world. Change a life and you begin to change the world.

We call this Tikkun olam, perfecting the world. Judaism believes that it is no accident that we are here, at this time and place, with these gifts and capabilities, and the opportunity to make a difference. This belief is known as divine providence: the idea that God is active in our live as individuals, not only, as the Greek philosophers believed, concerned with universals. We are here because there is a task that only we can fulfill. We can never know the ripple of consequences set in motion by the slightest act.

– Send e-mail to Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel at rabbi@JewishKU.com.