Impact.

I have always thought that is the goal and the highest ideal.  …but is it really?

Obviously, impact is not bad.  But is there something better?

What about lasting impact?

Lasting impact would be different than impact in regards to longevity, capacity, scope, and sustainability.  Impact is about making a difference in someone’s life.  Lasting impact is making a change in someone’s life.  Impact is about helping people in their desperate situations.  Lasting impact is about changing the situation.

Impact vs. Lasting Impact.

The question is not about whether we should make an impact or not.  That answer is obvious.  We should definitely seek to make an impact.

The question is whether we should make an impact or a lasting impact.  Nobody is asking that question.  But we need to start.  Because the world needs lasting impact.

Lasting impact.

That’s what we need to work on.

After checking with my friend who owns the house, I went back downstairs to clean everything up.  And it was in this unplanned cleaning where I had an epiphany – a water-soaked, somewhat smelly epiphany.

The leaky washer was a perfect metaphor to describe the issues of extreme poverty and how we can fully end this terrible issue.

Here’s how it went down: The washer with my clothes began to leak.  Apparently, it leaks every time that it runs.  So the homeowner got a big pump that can suck the water off of the floor right behind the washer.  But when I was down there doing my wash and it started leaking – the pump did not turn on.  For some reason, the pump just sat there.  Just sat there.

With water all over the floor, I ran over and turned off the washer.  Then it was time to get things cleaned up.

First, I tried to get the big pump back working.  Once I inevitably failed at that, I then went to Plan B and then Plan C.  I tried to use a small water vacuum to suck up some of the water.  And then I tried to just sweep the water with a broom down to a drain.  I tried all of these options to get the water cleaned up.

As I was doing all of this, I thought to myself, “This is a great example of what is happening with the fight against extreme poverty right now”.  And here is what I mean by this.  We are trying so many things to get people out of the desperate problems that extreme poverty puts them in.  Just like all the things I was trying to do to clean the water up.

But what was the real answer to how to fix the problem of the water on the floor?

The answer is this: Fix the washer.

((Part Two coming soon…))

Change.

Not charity.

This thought is beginning to captivate my time and attention.  We can no longer be content with just giving money for charity.  Unless it is a desperate situation where people are literally suffering and dying, we should be focusing our efforts on changing things, right?

Also, I am not talking about small changes.  That is just finding a better way to work inside of a broken system.  What I am talking about is the large-scale changes that take place when we identify the root problem and then attack it.

The world does not need more charity.  But it does need more change.

Let’s work toward that.

Here we go!

((It was recently brought to my attention that “Change, Not Charity” is a tagline of Funding Exchange and the logo is theirs, as well.  While this was not my intention to utilize their tagline or logo, I would still like to give credit to them. They seem like a great organization doing some excellent things.  You can check them out here – http://fex.org/ ))

But I think that there is something that we can all agree on.  Even though we do not all agree on what we need to do, I think that we can all agree on how we need to do it.

Aid, development, betterment, compassion, ministry, missions, and any other word you want to throw at it should be done with a consistent attitude.  Relationships and community are key.  We are all on the same team.  We are all in this together – especially as we show solidarity with each other through shared living situations and experiences.

And everything we do should be done the right way: listening, dignity, cooperation, empowerment.  There are many books written about the harmful side of humanitarian aid.  Many times helpful efforts can be destructive when they are conducted without thought to how people feel and what they really want.  We can’t do this anymore.

This is why it is important that no matter what we do – no matter what strategy we employ – we will go about it the right way.

Relationships.  Community.  Solidarity.  Listening.  Dignity.  Cooperation.  Empowerment.

And above all, friendship.

Here we go.

Helping one person out of poverty is a noble thing.  But trying to eliminate poverty altogether so that people are not put in a context of poverty anymore is both noble and wise.  It is a better way.  It is a cure for the disease.  It is digging up the roots.  It is buying a new bike instead of constantly trying to fix the old one.

A new context.

A new system.

Eliminating poverty altogether.

That should be our goal… because that is the best way to help.

And wouldn’t you rather do that?

Here we go.

Have you ever played the game “Would You Rather?”  It is a really fun ice-breaker kind of game.  The game asks you ‘would you rather?’ and gives you two options.  The options can either be things about you or funny things.  But it is a great game.

So we are going to play a pseudo-very-important game of “Would You Rather?”

Here are the two options: Would You Rather…

… help get someone out of poverty?

… eliminate poverty altogether?

Both are obviously pretty good suggestions, right?  I mean, it’s not like one of them is a terrible thing by any means.  But if you had to choose one of them – which one is better than the other?

Why would I say that we have to choose one of them?  I mean, this is just a dumb icebreaker game, right?  No, it is more than that.  And we do have to choose.  The world has limited resources, money, energy, people, and time.  We cannot afford – literally and figuratively – to waste any more time with strategies that do not work and do not solve the problem.  We need to put all of our efforts behind one common mission and vision.

So would you rather – help someone get out of poverty?  Or would you rather eliminate poverty altogether?

So what can we do to end these issues – fully and completely end them?

We can’t do it by making small changes within the current broken system.  What we need to do is change the entire context and create a new system.

But we cannot get to that step until we change our mindset.   Leaders who want to make a huge impact on the world need to change their mindset to a holistic mindset that understands we have to change the whole system.  A mindset that understands that nothing will truly change unless the entire context changes.  And a mindset that sees the incredible potential of changing the context so that each and every smaller issue can be revolved naturally.

How do we end these desperate issues caused by extreme poverty?

We change the overall context.  Change the game.  Make a new system.

And how do we do that?

It all starts with changing your mindset.

Here we go.

Regardless, here is what I was thinking.

Tackling is an important part of football.  If a team wants to do well on defense, they need to be pretty good at tackling the person on the other team with the ball.  That is just something that you do in the game of football.  It is a reality of football.

But it is not the whole game.

It is not the goal of the game.

It is only part of the game.

The goal of playing the game of football is to win.  You could be incredibly at tackling and still lose the game.  You could be the best tackling team in the league, but since you are bad at offense and special teams – you could lose every game.  And that would not be a successful season.  The goal of playing football is to win.  That is the mission, the vision, and the objective.  Does being a good tackling team help achieve that goal?  Definitely.  But it is not the over-arching goal.  The goal is to win the game.

This same principle can be compared with the way that many people think about ‘justice’.  For many people in the humanitarian aid world, justice is all about righting the wrongs in society.  It is about stopping bad things from happening.  The goal of justice is to stop injustice.

So these people and their organizations focus on programs that right the wrongs, stop the injustices, and tackle (pardon the pun) any problems and evils that might be happening.  If there are bad people out there – they are going down.  From human trafficking to slavery to corporations that abuse workers to a myriad of other social evils, people want to stop injustice any way that they can.

But that is only part of the big picture.  That is only part of the game.

See, the goal is not to stop injustice.  That is just like tackling.  It is definitely a part of what needs to be done in order to achieve the end goal, but it is not the goal in and of itself.  The goal is to go beyond stopping injustice in order to fully create a new context of peace, equality, and justice.  The goal is to create a context that is not only free of injustice but also puts people in a place to prosper and thrive.

That’s the end goal.  That’s how we win the game.

So don’t get too excited about tackling – even though that is important.

But let’s have an End Goal mindset.  Let’s create an entirely new context that is right and good.

Let’s win the game.

That’s the goal.

So many people will throw around the phrase “I want to change the world”.  But what does that really mean?  What does that entail?  What does this really look like?

To ‘change the world’ means that you are making something happen that has not happened before.  You are making a change, a one-time shift in the way that something is happening.  Making a change in the world is incredibly important, and it is incredibly hard to do.

But ‘changing the world’ hasn’t really made the changes that we need.  There are still so many issues, so many problems, and so many wrong directions.  While some things are definitely happening, there is still more that needs to be done.

So maybe changing the world is not enough?  Then let’s change how the world thinks.

If we can change the way the world thinks – then the world can make changes on their own.  Instead of relying on one-time changes to make small shifts in specific areas, we can simply change how the world thinks.  We can change the entire culture and context.  We can create a better system and then let it run its course in a better way.  One specific change.  Or one change that can spawn hundreds of changes.

We don’t need to change the world – we need to change the way the world thinks.

The double whammy effect of poverty is that those who are living at the bottom of extreme poverty not
only have a lifestyle that does not match up well with current humanitarian aid offerings but are also
the most susceptible to suffer from the effects of their extreme poverty. It is the terrible side effect of
poverty. Those who have the least are also affected the most.

For many living at the bottom of extreme poverty, their lives are not conducive to even the most basic
of humanitarian aid. For example, bednets are given out to many people living in the developing
countries of Africa. A normal bednet attaches to the ceiling and is tucked under the mattress. For most
living in extreme poverty, this makes sense for their way of live. But those living at the very bottom of
extreme poverty, they often do not live in any type of a house or dwelling. They do not have a ceiling or
a mattress. Thus, they cannot reap the benefits of these humanitarian aid items because they are not
conducive to their lifestyle.

And to make matters worse, those living at the bottom of extreme poverty are the most susceptible to
become sick and stay sick, too. They are the most affected because they do not have any resources to
help them. No medical insurance. No money for emergencies. The fewest items for hygiene. They are
most affected by the issues that they face because of their lack of resources.

The “double whammy”. That’s the reality for millions of people in the world.

So now the question becomes this: What can we do about it?