Recently, I received a letter from a man who is grappling with the many injustices in the world both now and throughout history. He wrote, “When I read the goals of organizations like yours, I think how sincere and well intentioned they are—but also how naïve. The assumption is that the law of averages is miraculously going to overcome poverty and injustice, and that transformation will occur because it has to be so. I ask, why does it have to be so just because it seems right? Maybe there is a reason for the human tragedy that we have not thought of.”

I was compelled to respond. I found myself writing about some of the things that inspire me to get up every morning, and to do the work that gives my life meaning.

Here is what I told him: I am inspired by the persistence of growing green things. For example, a single blade of grass can push itself up through a large cement slab. That blade of grass, once through, is joined by others until the grass itself is starting to make rubble out of the cement. I feel I’m one of those blades of grass, and that through actions—motivated by love rather than fear—I can make a difference within my sphere of influence.

Knowing that a blade of grass persists against the seemingly huge obstacle of cement keeps me going in the face overwhelming evidence that the world is in terrible shape.

When I hear about the devastation going on in the oceans, I produce a program about it with someone who having a positive impact on the situation. When I feel the Christian tradition as spoken by Jesus has been hijacked by shrieking radical Christians, I produce a program with an evangelical minister who speaks from a voice of reason and love.

I can remember that back in the early 1970s the birthing process was treated like some medical emergency in a surgical amphitheater with bright lights, a drugged mother who was helpless to participate, and a baby pulled from her body with forceps. I started producing programs on this subject with such luminaries as Dr. Frederick Leboyer, who advocated what he calls “birth without violence.” Since that time practically every hospital in the United States has set up a birthing center where natural childbirth is supported by a midwife, low lights, and a supportive team.

Also in the early 1970s, New Dimensions was producing programs on alternative and complementary medicine. The mainstream media laughed at us, but now it is acknowledged that more money is spent on this kind of medicine than on allopathic medicine. Insurance companies now pay for some of these alternatives. I could go on with other examples of the changing of an age. New Dimensions has done programs on prison reform, peace, the media, work and livelihood, business, politics, and many other subjects. We are not covering all that needs to be covered, but we are doing our part. And that is the point for me. It is good to look at the history from where we’ve come and be aware of the terrible injustices that continue to emerge in the world today.

However, we must keep doing what we can to change that. As Michael Toms is fond of saying, “Hope is believing, in spite of the evidence—and working actively to change the evidence.”

Reprinted with permission from Small Pleasures: Finding Grace in a Chaotic World, pages 90-92 by Justine Toms © 2008 Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Charlottesville, VA.

Justine Toms is cofounder and managing producer of New Dimensions Media / World Broadcasting Network. She leads workshops on “Living Life on Purpose” and is co-author with Michael Toms of True Work: Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do. Visit: www.justinewillistoms.com.

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