Newton's Third Law of Social Change: Reacting Forces

So over the past two days I've been talking about physics.

Yeah, it was a surprise to me too.

Actually I was talking about how Isaac Newton's First Law: Balanced Forces and Second Law: F=MA bizarrely applied to our approach toward social change, specifically how it is a bad idea to set out to change the world.

Please don't change the channel, I don't mean that change isn't possible, I just mean that oversimplifying complex world problems is one of the major reasons we get so discouraged so easily.

The First Law shows how, in order to combat such problems, we have to match the forces perpetuating them. The Second Law shows impossibly powerful those forces are. Now I want to talk about the Third Law...

Newton's Third Law: Reactive Forces

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

That means that, every time you exert force, that exertion will have a negative reaction somewhere else. You can't push on something unless you have something to push against, does that make sense? This means that if you are fighting to end world hunger, you might be bracing yourself against environmental responsibility. Every action has a cost, and equal opposite reaction.

If we can revisit the idea of apathy (remember apathy isn't neutral, it is a force against change), if you ask an individual to care about something, care enough to do something, then that has an equal, negative reaction somewhere else in that person's life.

You're not just asking them to care more about something, you asking them to care less about something else.

Did you ever do that team building exercise where everyone stands in a single file line forming a tight circle and then simultaneously sits down? The idea is that you are all sitting on the lap of the person behind you and, thus, everyone is supporting everyone else.

It's a picture of humanity perfectly balanced.

Well, if you've ever done that exercise, it requires full participation of every person, absolute trust, and the assumption that you don't think the person behind you is icky. When you start talking about this kind of worldwide cooperation, you move solidly into the world of idealistic impossibility.

Again, I don't say this to discourage taking action against social injustices, I say this to remind you and myself to focus. Remember that saying about how you eat an elephant (one bite at a time)? Well, when you take a bite, you don't think about how much you have to go, you think about chewing.

Focus on the achievable (...but it's okay to dream about the impossible).

If you're looking for an opportunity to do something immediate, achievable, yet incredibly powerful, consider rescuing a child from poverty through Compassion International. Yes, this is a shameless plug for Compassion, but  I wouldn't be talking about any of this if I didn't believe in what they do.

Newton's Second Law of Social Change: F=MA

On Friday, I suggested that we can't set out to solve world problems, that the problems are just too big.

Hopefully, if you read that post or what I posted yesterday, you realized that I don't mean trying to be a force for change. It just means the task is too great for you individually.

For some sick reason this began to make to sense to me through Newton's Laws of Motion.

Yesterday I posted Newton's First Law of Social Change: Balanced Forces, today I'd like to talk about the second law.

Newton's Second Law: F=MA

The Force of an object is the product of its Mass (weight/size) and Acceleration (speed over time)

Yesterday, I talked about the need to overcome the forces perpetuating problems like hunger and genocide, this second post is about the size of those forces.

To get a very simplified idea of strength of this force: if you could take the number of hungry people in the world (mass) and multiply it by all factors contributing to starvation and how quickly they are strengthening (acceleration), that would be the size of the force you needed to "end hunger."

That is an impossible task for you to do.

So what can you do? What can I do? 

First, don't take on an impossible, abstract task like ending poverty, you will only be discouraged and maybe even give up. Find something real that you can do and commit to doing it.

Second, find something real that you already believe in. 

• If you care about women's rights, stand up for the rights of a woman sold into prostitution. 
• If you believe that no one should go hungry, hold a food drive to benefit your food bank or help teach a man in poverty to farm. 
• If you love coffee, drink coffee and do good! 

Find something that speaks to your heart and listen to it.

Third, keep doing it. This ties directly back to the first thing. Find something you can do, not something you wish you could do, and keep doing it.

While sending money to an organization fighting for a cause is great, if you want to really be compassionate for the needy, invite them into your world. That may be reaching out not only to the desperate poor in Sierra Leone but also to the poor in your city or neighborhood. There is nothing more real than breathing the same air as forgotten person you have chosen to love.

Another way to "bring someone into your world" is by sponsoring a child in poverty through and organization like Compassion International. When you sponsor a child you not only send money to save their life, but you commit to being part of their life and letting them be part of yours.

Newton's First Law of Social Change: Balanced Forces

On Friday, I talked about why I believe we can't set out to solve world problems.

As I was thinking about the immeasurable size of these issues, for some sadistic reason, God chose to speak to me through physics. I don't really like physics.

I don't get physics. Or chemistry. Or subtraction. I get nouns and verbs, so it would make sense that God would speak to me through grammar or sentence structure. But no, not today. God spoke to me through Newton's three laws of motion.

Newton's First Law: Balanced Forces

The motion (or lack of motion) on an object will not change so long as the forces on it are balanced.

In other words, something will not move until something moves it and the force that moves it has to overcome the sum of the forces keeping it in place.

These forces include social and cultural norms, political corruption, international and in-country conflict, a lack of human rights, limited natural resources and environmental issues, poor farming and business practices, lack of education, and many others.

These problems are not few and they are not easy to change.

Do you see why I might say that you, individually, cannot set out to solve world problems?

Another force to consider is apathy. We often assume that "not caring" is neutral, but it is not; it is a force against change. I don't think it's fair to rage against all the people in the world who "don't care," and, honestly, it would be hypocritical. The truth is that most people are not so cold as to be unemotional about the death of a child (or many other issues), it is not as simple as "not caring."

So, really, why aren't people part of the force saving that child rather than the part perpetuating his death?

The answer is different for each person. Maybe they are unaware of it, maybe they do not know how to help, maybe they do not trust the organizations in place to combat poverty. It is likely the weight of all the other worries in an individual's life drawing their attention away from the problem of poverty.

Many are simply so discouraged by the size of the problem, that they do nothing.

Do you see why I might say that you, individually, cannot set out to solve world problems?

You will become discouraged before you even begin.

And so you should! The solution to these complex issues, essentially, requires participation every single person on the planet both individually and how they work together.

Don't you see why I might say that you, individually, cannot set out to solve world problems?

The force required is to great for one person. 

It important to recognize the overwhelming size of these issues. When you oversimplify issues like poverty, world hunger, human trafficking, homelessness, war, and the marginalization of women, you don't approach them effectively and you will become discouraged when you do realize how huge they are.

We have to focus on the things that we can do to be part of the force combatting this issues, rather than abstract ideas like "ending hunger," because we cannot end hunger, but we can teach farmers in Rwanda more effective ways of growing coffee. We cannot end human trafficking, but we can rescue this child from prostitution.

We cannot end infant mortality, but we can rescue one child.

By partnering with others to discover the smaller pieces making up impossibly complex issues and by focusing on the immediate, achievable goals in front of you, you can combat the larger issues. 

The important thing is to recognize the hugeness of the problem but to focus on the one thing that you can do and commit to doing it.

We can't save the world but we can do something.

Souls for Sale

for reasons that GOD has ordained, the slave trade has been on my heart over the past several weeks. a person i was corresponding with (attempting not to debate with) brought up as an objection to Christianity that the bible condoned slavery. i knew that this was a common misconception yet i was challenged to find out what the bible DID say regarding slavery and the state of slavery today. it seems that He continues to lay this topic on my heart through various avenues and i am simply overwhelmed with the enormous problem this still presents today. it is absolutely shocking and heartbreaking to read of stories of human trafficking even in the united states and even worse by professed christians. more info to follow but if someone stumbles upon this entry please stop and pray with me now for intervention from God and by His church. cry freedom from these chains!