I love Jackson Browne's music ” and yet there are times when I don't want to hear one more song about how hard life on the road is for rock stars.
Yes” it's lonely. And yes it's a grind. And yes home is so much better. But really ” how bad can it be?
Rock stars enjoy a great lifestyle with loads of recognition and adoration – and not a bad annual income. Believe it or not” it's sometimes the same with people in our business. We could probably write some hits about the stress of reading grants the isolation you feel and the constant pressure to make grants that change the world ” although I don't see anyone going on the road with that just yet.
It's that last phrase about the pressure to change the world that works on me the most some days. Today is that way. Twenty years ago we would receive requests for donations that were going to save the world before the end of the century. Today” ” the world is not going to be saved. It is going to be changed. It is going to be fixed.
Every new organization says it is going to be the one to make a huge difference and address a problem that has plagued the world for centuries. I'm not being cynical” and I'm not advocating for fatalism or being passive in the face of tragedy ” injustice and the effects of a fallen world.
I suppose I am saying this to all the wonderful” enthusiastic highly motivated and infectious ministry entrepreneurs I meet. Just show me how you are going to give everything you have to help others the next 10 years – even if you don't change the world.