Do you ever ask yourself the question, “Am I doing enough?”

I’m not talking about sheer busy-ness–but are you doing enough of what really matters? How would you know if you were? And can’t you always do a little bit more?

It’s a haunting question for me. One that I think about when buying a coffee at Starbucks or going to the movies or buying a new book.

I think of the end of Schindler’s List where Oskar Schindler realizes his watch and gold pin could have saved a few more Jews from the concentration camps. Surrounded by over 1,000 survivors–alive because of his sacrifices–he is haunted by the idea that he might have saved just a few more…even one more.

The emotional weight of that scene is tremendous. While some find it manipulative, I think it’s emotional power comes from the universality of the question: “Have I done enough?”  In some way, we can all access that question from our own perspective and in our own lives.

Here is a thought-provoking article from The Oasis blog. The author’s family is in the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia, and they are wrestling through many of the emotions and struggles inherent in that process. Missy writes:

There is a major dilemma that we all must face as Christians at some point.  As Americans, we are ALL wealthy in comparison to the rest of this world.  As Americans, we are known to the rest of this world as a “Christian nation”.

Americans give to the hungry at a low percentage of their GNP (gross national product) in comparison to other nations.  What are we, as individual wealthy Christian Americans, telling the poverty-stricken world around us about Jesus Christ?  What are we telling the world about the Gospels?

We are NOT the widow giving up her two coins. 

We are the rich, making a big show of our tiny gifts.

Since WWII, trillions of dollars have been given in foreign aid to address the problems of hunger, of disease, of dirty water, and of education. As I mentioned in a previous post, much of this is “bad aid” that fosters dependency. We have cut off the developing world from global trade and free markets that could help hardworking people transform themselves.

So as the rich West, we may have trillions of dollars of aid to make a show of… What the poor really need are trade partners and free markets. That is the most liberating gift we could give!

The greatest gift we could give the developing world is a thriving system of trade that empowered the poorest and most vulnerable entrepreneurs–helping them earn a proper wage to become self-sufficient. 

In this regard, I think we are NOT doing enough. We are not opening these avenues of economic development fast enough…although they are coming. We do make a big deal about our “foreign aid” dollars, even though they are only about 1% of the federal budget.

I encourage you to read all of Missy’s article here, as it addresses many critical issues in adoption ethics, and personally think she lands on the right conclusion to all of this. (You’ll have to read it to see if you agree.)