CCD Saturday: ladder down the change

Community problems run deep and wide, and I can easily find myself in meetings where the talk is about the gaping educational achievement gap for minorities, or the blight of neglected neighborhoods, or the increase in gun violence, the need for employment opportunities, or the work for more temporary shelters and affordable housing. These ARE all significant problems to solve together toward a healthier community, but Saturday reminded me that while strategizing and mobilizing for the Biggies, we can also ladder our way down to some very simple ways to build community and care about our neighborhoods.  

Saturday's 2nd annual Zinnia Blast found neighbors rallying around pink and purple and orange annual flowers that will adorn several corners of the Walnut Neighborhood and will brighten the front steps and porches of several neighbors.  After four hours of visiting and working side by side with neighbors, it was apparent that the small act of planting flowers and beautifying the neighborhood can have a BIG affect...helping neighbors come to know neighbors, strengthening neighborhood through collective action, and beautifying an area with the bright and bold colors of summer.  

Jesus was all about the power of the small.  While coming to save humanity through the big work on the cross, he also demonstrated the power of the small through a conversation at the well with a Samaritan woman, through inviting children to gather around him, through making breakfast for his friends on the beach.  

In the midst of working toward big systemic change, we cannot forget the need to ladder down the change with very tangible, very concrete small acts of love that turn out to be not so small after all.