Do you want to be trendy or helpful?

With supporting causes being so trendy in our culture, we’re constantly being barraged with all sorts of requests …

Want to buy some Girl Scout cookies?

Would you support my 5k run for the cure?

Would you sponsor some miles for my ride?

Would you post this vital info on Facebook for an hour?

Would you retweet this so everyone knows about it?

Can I post this notice in your workplace?

Please keep this email going …

… and what is happening is, increasingly, a whole lot of noise.

The result is that we have a lot of people who are more informed about various issues … and a lot of people who think passing around information about causes from person to person is a real way of making a difference. We’ve reduced taking on one or two issues as serious personal commitments to thinking that posting something to a social media site is a significant way to achieve something for a cause.

Sometimes, getting information out does make a significant difference. But in our social media culture, often it’s just one more “post” of information that’s lightly scanned before being forgotten.

We’ve reduced our giving from feeling the sting of digging deeply for a need we’ve committed ourselves to, to giving a little to a lot of needs. The 20 causes we give $10 to doesn’t hurt as much as standing behind a couple primary commitments.

It is possible to have so much information about so many needs that you can water down your “support” so much that it becomes almost insignificant. That’s not to say that the $5 you give toward finding a cure for cancer doesn’t matter … it does! But when you used to give $500 but can’t anymore since you’re also supporting 10 other causes, you reduce the impact of your support.

Sometimes, every little bit adds up; and sometimes, a whole lot of a little bit only adds up to a little.

It’s one thing to feed the trend of touting causes, it’s quite another to really make a difference in a significant way. If you really want to help a person, organization, or church, then identify how you can make the greatest impact and commit yourself to making the deepest difference you possibly can.

Scotty