The Upper Room

Did you ever have one of those “strong driving wind” experiences in which the Spirit rushed upon you, and all of a sudden anything seemed possible? That happened to me recently. I met the new director of our local Catholic Charities office a couple of months ago. I was making small talk and asked him what his plans were for his new position. “To cut poverty in half in this county,” he answered. Well, yeah. I meant in this lifetime. But he meant within this lifetime. Actually, he meant within 15 years. I was startled. The trends are in the opposite direction. Child poverty is actually getting worse, up 12 percent since 2000. But he has a plan. And I believe it’s possible. That’s what the Spirit can do.

But it’s not just the Spirit that does these kinds of impossible things. It is the gifts of the Spirit. If you turn to page 20 [of the April / May 2007 issue of RTJ], you’ll see a listing of the gifts the Holy Spirit gives us. Now I know there are a lot of gifts, and I can even name most of them. I’ve taught classes about them. Nevertheless, something about seeing the gifts all lined up on the page that way—well, I was startled again. It’s like your favorite Christmas as a kid when you not only got all the stuff you asked for, but also the stuff you never dreamed your parents would ever get you.

So here’s a challenge for all of us who love kids. Let’s put some of those gifts to use. Let’s cut poverty in half in 15 years. Or choose your own impossible goal. But start working on something. All we need is a plan. Not sure where to start? Marian Wright Edelman, the founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, has some suggestions that can help us start putting our gifts to use:

1. Don’t feel entitled. Don’t assume a door is closed; push on it. Don’t assume if it was closed yesterday that it is closed today.
   
   
2. Assign yourself. If no one has given you a task or a job to do, assign yourself one. Take initiative. Be persistent.
   
   
3. Be honest and demand that those who represent you be honest. And don’t ever confuse morality with legality. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us, “Everything Hitler did in Nazi Germany was legal, but it was not moral.” Don’t give anybody the proxy for your conscience.
   
   
4. Don’t be afraid of taking risks or of being criticized. An anonymous saying is, “If you don’t want to be criticized, don’t do anything, don’t say anything and don’t be anything.” Don’t be afraid of failing; it is the way you learn to do things right.
   
   
5. Listen to the sound of the genuine in yourself. If you cannot hear it in yourself, you will spend all of your life on the end of strings that somebody else pulls. Today, there are just so many noises and so many competing pulls on us. Find ways and times and spaces to be silent to listen to yourselves and to listen for other people.
   
   
6. Never think life is not worth living or that you can’t make a difference. Never give up.