I’m in a Facebook group started by a doctor friend in Africa. She doesn’t spare us. She sends pictures of patients with facial deformities, advanced cancers, the worst medical afflictions possible. It makes me want to go there to help her, but the truth is, I would be pretty useless. However…I can send money.

Seeing the disturbing pictures keeps me focused. I’m not a glutton for punishment, but this is reality. And here’s the confounding thing. Relieving someone’s suffering through a donation is a creative thing we can do. It’s a profoundly impactful thing. And further, it’s okay if it makes us happy. We can partner with those on the front lines. They actually couldn’t do what they do without some funding.

Contemplative theologian Beatrice Bruteau wrote this. “Perceiving creative action and interaction as reality itself, we feel ourselves fully living, full of the richness of God’s life, the interior fountain that never fails.” 

I’ve written a whole book on creative ways to get involved in one’s world, but when profound need isn’t smacking me in the face every day, sometimes I forget. God, however, doesn’t forget. He shows up, not with a wagging finger, but with a reminder that there are a jillion ways to bless people.

That’s so like God. The Creator invites us to be creative as well.