It was early morning several years ago when the double ring on my office phone indicated someone in the building needed to talk to me. It was a co-worker who asked if I could come to her office and assist her with something. This intelligent, highly efficient woman who could run offices and take on large projects was stymied by a shoelace. A sprain to a finger on her right hand made re-tying the lace nearly impossible.
The human hand is made up of bones, joints, ligaments, muscles, nerves, arteries and more. It is complex and wondrously created and can do truly extraordinary things. Think of the hands of the people nearest to you right now. Countlesstruly countlessare the things those hands may have done. They have held babies, nursed wounds, graded papers, played instruments, cooked meals, painted walls, sorted laundry, tended gardens, canned fruit, organized photo albums, cared for patients, set up spread sheets, thrown baseballs, moved furniture, fed pets, written poems, built an engine, repaired a table, been folded in prayer, and perhaps evenfought for freedom. From the gentle touch of wiping away a tear to the powerful grasp of pulling a victim out of a burning building, human hands are capable of anything.
I was moved by the account of a woman who lost her right arm just above the elbow in a car accident. Determined to do everything she could before, this wife and mother added new activities to her already expansive list as well as an impressive amount of volunteer work including coaching at a local recreation centre and teaching piano to children whose families couldn't afford lessons. She said she knew from the start of her recovery she wanted to turn attention away from herself and focus on the needs of others.
Hubert Humphrey, 38th vice president of the United States, once said, "The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor." He was right. Official programs or policies can provide structure to what is necessary, but it is people helping people--one to another--hand to hand--that makes the difference.
The needs of people in our community and all around the world can seem overwhelming. Think of the pain carried by the families who lost everything in mudslides, the uncertainty for those living in politically unstable regions, the hardships endured by those in refugee camps, the frustration of the working poor who can't make financial headway, the loneliness experienced by the widower adjusting to a life he never wanted to prepare for. No matter how earnest our desire, no matter how genuine our intentions, our two hands alone are no match for the armloads of problems that have been encountered today and the handfuls of new ones that will be presented tomorrow.
But we can't be content with what has been or be resigned to thinking things will never change. If something isn't working we need do what is necessary to fix it, to adapt what was being done in the past in order to effectively see what needs to happen next. That is the beauty of taking my thoughts, your ideas, her plans, his experience, and their passion--shutting out the noise of those who say it can't be done--and working hand in hand with one another. Because when my hands are joined with yours, which are then linked with others, all of the gentleness and all of the strength come through to provide care and comfort as well as break down walls and break through obstacles. The best thing is that those hands don't need to be in perfect condition to be effective. That's the strength of cumulative effortsthe arthritic hand combines with the athletic onethe agile with the injuredthe artistic with the agedthe academicthe affablethe affluenteach and every hand providing something special, something unique, that makes the situation somewhat bettersomewhat more bearable.
Break an arm, crack a wrist or twist an ankle and you realize how much of our daily motions and our capacity for action are impacted. So we adapt, think it through differently, and even call for help. The same must occur when we look at the brokenness that exists around us. We need to adjust, to modify, to look again at the situation and come up with new ideas because that is what people need us to do. No matter what condition our hands may be in, they are capable of doing tremendous things. Even more tremendous are the things that are accomplished when our efforts come together. We absolutely can gain a foothold on all the struggles and challenges that exist within our grasp along with those that may be physically out of reach. What we need to do to gain the upper hand is to ensure we are getting all hands on deck. That's my outlook.
