A Modern Parable - The Children are Drowning

Why Overwhelming Scale of Problems is No Excuse for Retreat

In response to recent content over on the ‘Gram and Threads, I received pushback from Christian Americans somewhere along the lines of, "There's endless suffering in the world and we can't stop it all, so we can't be morally obligated to stop some of it as a society."

So let's try Jesus' method of making a point in light pushback he received: Parable

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A Parable on Action

One day, a man was walking by a lake near his home. Suddenly, he spotted little hands coming out of the water, about 10 yards in.

Quickly, he rushed over and pulled those hands up.

Out from the water, clinging to his hands, emerges a small child, coughing and sputtering. "Th-th-thank you, sir," the child says, shivering from the cold water he nearly drowned in.

When he saw a child in need, a life he was more than capable of saving, this man sprung into action. After all, what monster would just watch a kid die without making any effort to save them?

A Critical Moment

A few weeks later, our character is at a park watching his children's soccer game. There are multiple soccer fields, with dozens of families and hundreds of children scattered around the park.

Suddenly, he hears a scream, followed by a yell, "The levee broke!," and the unmistakable sound of rushing water, which he sees rapidly approaching.

Water suddenly reaches his ankles, then his knees, his waist, and finally stops just short of his chest. The thing is, the man is 6'2". The children who had been scattered around the park are not.

Suddenly, it's like that day at the lake, but as far as the eye can see. Little child hands, faces, and legs all thrashing helplessly in the water.

Of course, the man gets to work right away. He sees that his children are safely clinging to their mother and directs them to make their way to the roof of their car.

In the meantime, he spots a playground towering above the water and begins wading towards it, grabbing as many small children as he can along the way and pulling them up onto his arms and shoulders.

"The playground! Get the kids onto the playground!," he shouts to any who will help. He can't save them all, but he'll save as many as he can, hoping others are doing likewise.

He reaches the playground and directs the children to clamber onto it off of his shoulders. Then, he wades back into the water, anxiously scanning for more tiny hands.

There's one. He reaches a small girl who clings to him for dear life while sputtering and coughing.

There's another. This one a young boy, bobbing momentarily above the dirty waters, then back under. He realizes he must be jumping from the ground beneath the waters to come back up for air. The man reaches him and pulls him onto his shoulders.

He grabs several more, ending with one on each shoulder, one slightly choking him as she clings to his neck, and one on each arm.

He turns, heading back to the playground to get these kids to safety. He sees others also trying to help, but he also sees more hands still in the distance.

Some thrashing desperately. Then, stillness.

As he unloads the kids from his shoulders at the playground, he sees hands disappear in one direction. Then another. Then another. He won't be able to save more than maybe one or two more.

He runs out to the where the nearest two children just stopped thrashing and begins to feel around under the dirty water. He catches a jersey in his fist. He pulls. A child comes up, gasping. He feels an arm in his other hand. He pulls this child up.

Unresponsive.

He rushes them both back to the playground, laying the unresponsive child down and beginning CPR.

Fortunately, he responds. Coughing up water and crying, the kid is alive. But many are not.

It's impossible to know how many drowned, but some surely did. The man will always have the weight of this experience with him, but he will also always know he did everything he could.

Years later, sometimes some of the kids he saved wave past him when they see him around town. They're alive today, and it's because of him. Not because he did anything great or mighty, but because when he saw them dying, he acted, whether he could save everyone or not.

Applying the Parable

Foreign aid isn't so different. Ministry to the vulnerable isn't so different. Serving the poor isn't so different.

Yes, the poor will always be with us. No, we will never be able to save every child. But we will not, we must not, be cowardly men and women of inaction simply because the scale of the disasters and needs of our world are intimidating.

We Americans, and especially us Christians, are to be people of action. When we see disaster, we wade in. We spur others to action with our own example and lead the way in might and service.

And we do so not only individually, but also as a society. We don’t watch one wade into the waters alone to do the work. We as a society mobilize the resources and manpower to save lives when disaster strikes.

We don't sit idly by while hands disappear under the water forever simply because there are "too many hands."

Not. Us.

I refuse to allow my generation to be those who choose to no longer be great. America doesn't need to be made "great again." We've led the democracies of the world for decades. We were counted as the heroes of the weak and vulnerable. We've saved millions of lives each and every year with a simple 1% of our budget.

We have heard the call of greatness, courage, and conviction, and have stood up to answer it. Sure, we've had flaws along the way, but our moral fortitude has proven itself consistently, especially in our last 50 years as a nation.

We must continue to answer that call. If we, the richest nation in the world, cannot answer that call, not only does the world lose monumental resources for good, but it also loses inspiration from a giant.

If the richest nation on earth "can't afford" to help others, who can? A spiraling domino effect of cowardice and selfishness will doubtlessly emerge.

I leave you with wise words from Uncle Ben, followed by words from Jesus Christ Himself that likely inspired Uncle Ben's.

Uncle Ben: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Jesus: "From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be expected."