The Age of the Unthinkable

I just finished Joshua Cooper Ramo's book The Age of the Unthinakble. It's a book that probably confirms for people that I am a 'geek'. Ramo examines everything from the recent financial meltdown, military conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the (initial) surprise success of the Wii, details interviews with both Israeli and Hizb'allah leaders, reveals how most Silicon Valley venture capitialits missed out on Google (and why one in particular didn't), and a host of other topics all meant to demonstrate how the world is fundamentally changing and what we can do with it.

For the purposes of the church, though, came this interesting thought. Ramo cites a discussion with Roberto Unger, a Brazilian politician, who believes that our current approach to the world has been reduced to the passing of checks through the mail- a danger that means our generosity is often wasted and always isolates us from a world that we need to feel and not simply see or touch at a distance (244). For the past couple of years at Hillcrest, we've discussed the danger of simply outsourcing our care for the world. We can write checks to places like The Community Outreach, the Furniture Mission, or even World Vision, but a check is simply a transaction that outsources the burden of care. While not everyone can work for these places, or even work in the places where these places operate, we all can take steps to do something so that our care isn't a simple outsourced transaction.