There is an active, vibrant network of people in Lynn and every community capable of making every city and town a better place to live in. This network doesn’t go by one name but many and nearly everyone drives by its offices and headquarters several times a day.
The network is faith and its components are the churches, temples, mosques and all other places of worship attended by people across the North Shore and the world. Individually and collectively, these faith gatherings have made significant change and the good news is they stand ready to make an even bigger difference.
An encouraging number of people sincerely believe they can make a change for the better in their community and society. Circumstances or past failures sometimes limit that optimistic belief but hope springs eternal and a single act of inspiration is often the push needed to get people to act for the betterment of one and all.
This inspiration can erode the scourge of crime, confront the tidal wave of addiction and vanquish loneliness and evaporate bitterness. It can give a voice to the voiceless and allow the eloquent to measure their words against the varied perspectives of many other people.
Harnessing faith to do even greater good can start with bringing collections of worshippers from dozens of different faiths closer together. Achieving that goal is as easy as organizing worship exchanges between various denominations and worship places. People can send out and welcome delegations from congregations down the street, across town or from other parts of the world.
The exchanges are only limited by the number of worshippers from all manner of churches and denominations who are interested in entertaining different faith perspectives. The exchanges can illuminate differences and highlight shared concerns and customs. They can get people talking about challenges and experiences and they can become building blocks for finding ways to bring a wide range of people from vastly different places together to surmount common obstacles.
The popular narrative that everyone has their nose stuck in a smartphone and secularism is rearing its fearsome head over the faith landscape is just that — a narrative that is ungrounded and unfounded. Thousands of people bring their faith once a week, often a couple of days a week, to hundreds of worship places. All of these people in different ways are working to eliminate the problems that cause others misery or doom them to death.
Faith flourishes because it is a flame burning in the hearts of individuals. Combine this intensity and, as a great man said, mountains truly can be moved. There is plenty of work to be done and success is defined by the number of people who will to step up and help out.