{"id":2302,"date":"2012-09-26T07:38:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T11:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/?p=2302"},"modified":"2012-09-05T18:38:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T22:38:49","slug":"conditioned-hopelessness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html","title":{"rendered":"Conditioned Hopelessness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-2304\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/201\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"142\" height=\"142\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Recently I shared a seven part series about God&#8217;s call to help the forgotten, poor, and downtrodden.<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><\/td>\n<td valign=\"middle\"><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.horizoncc.com\/horizonfiles\/mp3\/030412_t.mp3\" target=\"\">03\/04\/12 &#8220;Who Sees?&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0(Chad Hovind)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When you think about all the needs in the world, it\u2019s hard to not get overwhelmed. \u00a0The sheer numbers of those hurting and starving is staggering. Every day, 35,615 children die from the worst possible death imaginable: Starvation. 85% of these deaths occurs in children 5 years of age or younger.\u00a0\u00a0 Imagine 35,000 little three year olds a day dying in this condition.\u00a0 It\u2019s tragic, but it\u2019s so BIG, that it\u2019s overwhelming. \u00a0It\u2019s hard to think about. It\u2019s hard not to just shut down and disconnect. These are children who have Conditioned Hopelessness. \u00a0\u00a0They have been conditioned to be hopeless about life, food, and their future.<\/p>\n<p>But, despite the ways we are mobilizing to help those who are hurting&#8230;.it\u2019s easy to get overwhelmed. \u00a0As a staff, I hear about the real needs and pains daily. \u00a0Here\u2019s a sample of the last month:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I got a call from a husband who came home and found his house empty as his wife packed the bags and the kids.<\/li>\n<li>I talked to a family whose daughter was raped.<\/li>\n<li>I listened as a woman shared about a tragic secret in her life that she\u2019s hidden for 34 years.<\/li>\n<li>I heard about a man whose mom wanted to meet with him to share something God had told her&#8230;only to tell him that she was incredibly disappointed in the way he was turning out.<\/li>\n<li>A friend who went through two years of hell as wife flipped out and left he and three kids.<\/li>\n<li>I got a call from another friend who lost his lost job when a church split down middle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And the lists go on and on&#8230; perhaps for you it\u2019s another friend can&#8217;t afford Christmas gifts for kids, or little girls who can\u2019t afford school in Belize end up in prostitution, orphans have no one to hug them, play with them, or even remember their name in Mexico.\u00a0\u00a0 How do we respond to all this need? \u00a0\u00a0In the church we hear about all of it. Divorce, families breaking up, cancer, bad report, loss of job. \u00a0And if you go to a third world country&#8230; \u00a0you are just stunned by the size and scope of the problem&#8230;. \u00a0So what do you do? Ignore it, become overwhelmed by it&#8230; Be\u00a0 a \u201crealist\u201d and know that it\u2019s not going to be fixed. \u00a0We just sit by as the sex trade grows, orphans are forgotten, and corrupt governments let their citizens starve. As followers of Christ&#8230; we are challenged by Jesus to \u201cdo unto others as you would have them have unto you&#8230;\u201d \u00a0Jesus told us that \u201cwhat we do to the least of these, is a chance to do unto Him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA group of students from Trinity evangelical Divinity School outside of Chicago, did a little experiment. They went through all 66 books of the Bible and underlined every passage and verse that dealt with poverty,the hurting, and oppression. Then, one students took a pair of scissors and physically cut every one of those verses out of the Bible. The result was a volume in tatters that barely held together. Beginning with the Mosaic books, through the books of history, the Psalms and Proverbs, and the Major and Minor Prophets, to the four Gospels, the book of Acts, the epistles and into Revelation, so central were these themes to Scripture that the resulting Bible was in shambles. A Bible without a call to help the hurting, would be similar to putting the message through a shredder.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So, here is the dilemma.\u00a0 We know that on the one hand&#8230;we can\u2019t really fix it or solve it&#8230;it\u2019s just too big!! \u00a0It\u2019s a combination of corrupt global forces we can\u2019t change that exploit people as well as needs so great they are unquenchable&#8230; \u00a0We end up with Conditioned Hopelessness. \u00a0We end up conditioned to be hopeless about being part of the solution. We are conditioned to ignore, move on, and to withdraw. \u00a0So we have Hurting People with Conditioned Hopelessness. AND we have resourced people with Conditioned Hopelessness.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On the other hand, we can\u2019t ignore it and turn a blind eye to it. What are we supposed to do? If you\u2019ve every felt overwhelmed, you know how Jesus and His disciples felt. \u00a0The needs are huge&#8230; healing, confusion, pain, and now physical needs for food from over 5000 people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When You\u2019re Overwhelmed, You Under-React<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">When we get overwhelmed, we under-react. We figure the need is so big&#8230; there is nothing we can really do to make any change. \u00a0So we under-react and do nothing. \u00a0It makes sense, no matter how powerful you are, how influential you are, or how much money you have, the reality is that the problems of family decay, divorce, pain, sickness, poverty, sex trade, starvation are SOOO big, and SOOO complicated, that it\u2019s overwhelming. \u00a0And when we get overwhelmed, it\u2019s natural to under-react. \u00a0The disciples did this first hand.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mark 6:30 Then the apostles gathered to Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and what they had taught. 31And He said to them, \u201cCome aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.\u201d For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. 32 So they departed to a deserted place in the boat by themselves. \u00a033 But the multitudes saw them departing, and many knew Him and ran there on foot from all the cities.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesus was spent. So were the disciples. Jesus advised them to pull back, and recharge, to rest for a while. \u00a0But, \u201cmany\u201d were coming and going. \u00a0More and more need was building up. It was unstoppable. It was neverending.\u00a0 They were so busy \u00a0meeting needs that they \u201cdidn\u2019t even have time to eat.\u201d \u00a0They tried to get away to recharge, but the multitudes saw them departing and ran to the other side of the lake where they would debark and were waiting for them. \u00a0They tempted to disengage, to send away, get away, forget about it. \u00a0\u00a0And here Jesus and his disciples go through a two step process.<\/p>\n<p><em>They arrived before them and came together to Him. 34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things. 35 When the day was now far spent, His disciples came to Him and said, \u201cThis is a deserted place, and already the hour is late. 36 Send them away, that they may go into the surrounding country and villages and buy themselves bread; for they have nothing to eat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesus shows us the stages of engaging your heart with the forgotten.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">1. You first need is to \u201cSee the need.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">2. When you see the need, you will have \u201ccompassion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesus saw the need, had compassion, felt and realized they were like sheep with a shepherd. \u00a0The disciples however have conditioned hopelessness. Too big of a crowd. Too much want. Too many mouths to feed. \u00a0They suggest that Jesus \u201csend them away.\u201d He suggested that they \u201cgo into the villages to get something to eat.\u201d \u00a0This is what happens many times when we get overwhelmed&#8230; Send people to \u201csomeone\u201d to get their needs met.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesus says&#8230;. No, Don\u2019t forget the forgotten&#8230; \u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t send them away.<\/p>\n<p><em>37 But He answered and said to them, \u201cYou give them something to eat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesus says, Don\u2019t be conditioned to do nothing. \u00a0You give them something to eat. \u00a0\u00a0And the disciples are immediately overwhelmed with the need. The size, the cost, and the scope&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><em>And they said to Him, \u201cShall we go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread and give them something to eat?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Jesus responds to their accurate assessment of the problem and says, \u201cdon\u2019t think about what you don\u2019t have and can\u2019t do&#8230; instead tell me what you do have, and what you can do&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>38 But He said to them, \u201cHow many loaves do you have? Go and see.\u201d And when they found out they said, \u201cFive, and two fish.\u201d 39 Now, they come back from looking around. And they have something. They have five bread and two fish.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Often we don\u2019t see what\u2019s all around us because we don\u2019t take time to look.<\/p>\n<table width=\"430\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<colgroup>\n<col width=\"430\" \/><\/colgroup>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"430\" height=\"20\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_ZhcRfl181c\">http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_ZhcRfl181c<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For a free session of Godonomics, visit:\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/watch-session-5\">http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/watch-session-5<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Recently I shared a seven part series about God&#8217;s call to help the forgotten, poor, and downtrodden. 03\/04\/12 &#8220;Who Sees?&#8221;\u00a0(Chad Hovind) &nbsp; &nbsp; When you think about all the needs in the world, it\u2019s hard to not get overwhelmed. \u00a0The sheer numbers of those hurting and starving is staggering. Every day, 35,615 children die&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,72],"tags":[615,129,616],"class_list":["post-2302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-generosity","category-gospel","tag-holelessness","tag-hope","tag-starvation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Conditioned Hopelessness - Godonomics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conditioned Hopelessness - Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Recently I shared a seven part series about God&#8217;s call to help the forgotten, poor, and downtrodden. 03\/04\/12 &#8220;Who Sees?&#8221;\u00a0(Chad Hovind) &nbsp; &nbsp; When you think about all the needs in the world, it\u2019s hard to not get overwhelmed. \u00a0The sheer numbers of those hurting and starving is staggering. Every day, 35,615 children die&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Godonomics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-26T11:38:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-09-05T22:38:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"chadhovind\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Conditioned Hopelessness - Godonomics","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Conditioned Hopelessness - Godonomics","og_description":"&nbsp; Recently I shared a seven part series about God&#8217;s call to help the forgotten, poor, and downtrodden. 03\/04\/12 &#8220;Who Sees?&#8221;\u00a0(Chad Hovind) &nbsp; &nbsp; When you think about all the needs in the world, it\u2019s hard to not get overwhelmed. \u00a0The sheer numbers of those hurting and starving is staggering. Every day, 35,615 children die&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html","og_site_name":"Godonomics","article_published_time":"2012-09-26T11:38:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2012-09-05T22:38:49+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4-150x150.jpg"}],"author":"chadhovind","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html","name":"Conditioned Hopelessness - Godonomics","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4-150x150.jpg","datePublished":"2012-09-26T11:38:28+00:00","dateModified":"2012-09-05T22:38:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/godonomics\/files\/2012\/04\/unforgettable_small4-150x150.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/2012\/09\/conditioned-hopelessness.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Conditioned Hopelessness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/","name":"Godonomics","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Chad Hovind","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/b94809cbc6e13eafdb08a63d1825e37a","name":"chadhovind","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/5ce\/5ce450f147d7562d63fa6a7f70df8143x96.jpg","caption":"chadhovind"},"description":"Chad Hovind is Senior Pastor of Horizon Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. He graduated from Moody Bible College in Chicago, majoring in pastoral ministry and communication. His love for ministry and creativity can be seen in many forms: leading teams, expository teaching, acting, and video production. He has served as pastor at two high-impact churches in Georgia: Cumberland Community Church and New Community Church. Chad received an M.A. in Ministry from Moody Graduate School in 2008. He loves volleyball, movies, and hanging out with his wife Beth and their three children.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/author\/chadhovind"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2302"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2306,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2302\/revisions\/2306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/godonomics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}