As I mindlessly scrolled through social media a few months ago, I came across something worth keeping. This quote is especially for all you knitters out there:

The thing about knitting is it’s much harder to fear the existential futility of all your actions while you’re doing it. 

Like okay, sure, sometimes it’s hard to believe you’ve made any positive impact on the world. But it’s pretty easy to believe you’ve made a sock. Look at it. There it is. Put it on, now your foot’s warm. 

This is practical advice. When you feel overwhelmed regarding so many things happening in this world, from the state of our culture, the political landscape, global warming, whatever brings your anxiety up – one thing that helps is doing something practical and tangible like knitting or making a meal.

There are even studies done on animals that verify the usefulness of small tasks. In these studies, they would do things like give an animal an impossible task, like making them run a maze where it is actually impossible to get to that cheese. Eventually the animal would stop trying – even when they changed the placement of the cheese to place where it was easy to get. The way to get them out of it was to actually guide them to that cheese.

The idea behind it is this: doing something small can help us overcome that sense that something is overwhelming or impossible. This can be in knitting a sock, working in the garden, cleaning something, doing a favour, writing a letter to elected officials or making a meal. Whatever it is, these little things give us tangible ways that we can make a difference.

We could reword the post with the meal train in mind: “like ok, sure, sometimes it’s hard to believe you’ve made any positive impact on the world. But it’s pretty easy to believe you’ve made chili. Look at it, smell it, taste it. Fill your stomach, give it to a person who could use a meal in the church. Now your stomachs are full.” 

The pastor part of me just wants to point out that it isn’t by chance that these things happen. We were hardwired with these capacities. God created us with a desire to be connected to others, to enjoy creating things, to help the world move towards flourishing. When we get caught in thinking that we cannot be God and solve all the world’s problems, we could get the wrong message and just give up. Perhaps a good place to start is in recovering what we are created for: serving others, allowing ourselves to be served, make something.