New Blog and a Franciscan Benediction to memorize

My wife introduced me to a new blog site called Inward/Outward. I have read only a few of the entries and I think this will be a mainstay on my reader. The post she read and passed on to me was the following Franciscan Benediction (which I hope to memorize):


May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Becoming a Micro-lender

For sometime now I have been fascinated with Micorcredit. According to Wikipedia Microcredit:

"is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not considered bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of a wider range of financial services to the very poor."

I know Kiva.org has been around for a while now and it is nothing new, but it is something which I have begun to seriously consider as a way of shifting from acts of mercy to acts of justice. At Kiva.org you can lend money to entrepreneurs whom you like and over time the loan you give (as small as $25) is repaid which you can then re-lend, give to Kiva or keep for yourself.

It is my hope that one day the church could get into microcredit at the local level. It is the whole give a man a fish vs. teach a man to fish idea. Microcredit is an easy way for people like you and me to allow people to learn to fish!

Social Justice

While walking through the woods, I came up to the banks of a river. I saw a man struggling with the fast currant and about to drown. I quickly dove in and brought that man safely to the bank. At that instant my attention was drawn again to the river where I noticed a woman struggling and about to drown. I dove in and brought her safely to the riverbank. I wondered why this was happening. Why were these people falling into the river? It was then when I noticed that the bridge above the river had several missing planks. As people walked across, they tried to avoid the spot with the missing planks, but some couldn’t and they fell down into the river. I realized that if I replaced the missing and broken planks, I could prevent something bad from happening or at least I could prevent it from getting worse. Therefore, by replacing the missing and broken planks, I have committed an act of social justice.