We Came into this World for Something Higher

“Often in the course of running workshops or making presentations on global themes I have met people who care very deeply about the world’s ills, who feel that they would like to do something to promote global justice and world betterment, but who don’t know where to begin. They feel responsible, and perhaps even guilty that their lifestyle or their government may be contributing to the world’s problems, and yet they fear that they don’t know enough about the complexities of planetary issues to contribute anything more than their own good intentions.

I always encourage such people to get involved in a group or a cause that touches them deeply. It may be peace, it may be hunger, it may be global institution-building. Only by taking our good intentions into the arena of social change can we learn more about what is possible, what is effective, and what is wise. Personally, I would rather have ten sincere and well-motivated people out there in the struggle for world betterment, than have ten supposed experts who have all the right technical training but no moral grounding for what they are doing.

It is only when we dare to risk involvement, and the inevitable mistakes and wrong turns that come with it, that we can hope to learn and to become more effective. As complex as the world may seem, its needs are graphically simple: people are hungry… people have no homes.. some live in fear of others… our lakes are being poisoned… nuclear weapons threaten planetary life. These are simple realities, just as the impulse to make things better is a simple impulse.
Personally, I believe that God whispers in our ear, that God tugs at our hem, stirs our feelings, reminds us that we did not come into this world for self-satisfaction but for something higher – perhaps a chance for service, perhaps to spread a little love. I believe that right now, this very day, God is whispering to millions of people around the planet, whispering “it could be different… it could be better… there could be healing… and joy… and celebration. Unplug your ears, open your eyes, open your hearts. Come, follow Me.”

— Adam Daniel Corson-Finnerty, 1982
Quaker activist and nonprofit development worker

This Week’s Messages

Mon Feb 10

What All Dictators Strive For

“Non-conformity, Holy Disobedience, becomes a virtue and indeed a necessary and indispensable measure of spiritual self-preservation, in a day when the impulse to conform, to acquiesce, to go along, is the instrument which is used to subject men to totalitarian rule and involve them in permanent war. To create the impression at least of outward unanimity, the impression that there is no ‘real’ opposition, is something for which all dictators and military leaders strive assiduously. The more it seems that there is no opposition, the less worthwhile it seems to an ever larger number of people to cherish even the thought of opposition…” …
Tue Feb 11

Evils That Are Accepted Even by the Best Minds

“[George] Fox, indeed, when he visited Barbados 1671, had advised Friends to deal mildly with their negroes and to make them free after thirty years’ servitude, and urged the holding of family meetings with them, while in 1688 the German Friends who had migrated to Pennsylvania addressed the Yearly Meeting there against the buying and keeping of slaves. But it was reserved, as we know, for John Woolman fully to awaken the conscience of Friends on this matter.” …
Wed Feb 12

A Quaker Vision for Political Activism

“The systems that we create as people, the systems of government and systems of power and the way that we distribute resources, are all inhabited by people. And at its most powerful, this prophetic work is about relationships.” …
Thu Feb 13

Negatives Cannot Cast Out Negatives

“What we need is a program or movement based on what we believe in rather than on the things to which we are opposed… Negatives cannot cast out negatives. Fear will never rid the world of fear. We must begin to base our actions solely on what we know to be right, not on expediency.” …
Fri Feb 14

Politics Is the Concern of Religious People

“‘Politics’ cannot be relegated to some outer place, but must be recognised as one side of life, which is as much the concern of religious people and of a religious body as any other part of life. Nay, more than this, the ordering of the life of man in a community, so that he may have the chance of a full development, is and always has been one of the main concerns of Quakerism.” …
Sat Feb 15

Cry for Deliverance

“Too long have wrongs and oppression existed without an acknowledged wrongdoer and oppressor. It was not until the slave holder was told ‘Thou art the man’ that a healthy agitation was brought about. Woman is told the fault is in herself, in too willingly submitting to her inferior condition, but like the slave, she is pressed down by laws in the making of which she has no voice, and crushed by customs which have grown out of such laws. She cannot rise therefore, while thus trampled in the dust. The oppressor does not see himself in that light until the oppressed cry for deliverance.” …

Banner image: Zan Lombardo
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  • Adam Daniel Corson-Finnerty is a Quaker environmental activist and author. He has made his career in development for nonprofits, especially libraries, museums, and social change organizations.

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