Inspiration is contagious

March 12, 2020

I know a lot of Christians, but I don’t know many followers of Jesus. Rick Steves is a follower of Jesus. I’d like to meet him someday. Rick Steves, that is. And I’d be open to meeting Jesus as well.

While I’ve long been a fan of Rick’s European travel books and TV shows, and have traveled with his tour company in England and Ireland, it’s only recently that I’ve become aware of his social activism and philanthropy. In addition to donating a $4 million apartment complex for homeless women and children to the YWCA, and giving generously to a movement to end hunger as well as to many other good causes, Rick is a messenger of hope and optimism during this era of wrenching social, political, and climate challenges.

Last night I had the opportunity to watch Rick’s latest TV special on PBS, “Hunger and Hope: Lessons from Ethiopia and Guatemala” (also available online at http://www.ricksteves.com/hungerandhope). I wouldn’t normally use the words hunger and hope in the same sentence, but Rick does. I don’t know whether Rick’s sunny disposition is rooted in his Lutheran faith or his can-do American spirit, but I appreciate his upbeat reporting on progress being made in the areas of clean water, nutrition, health, and education in Ethiopia, Guatemala, and beyond:

While Ethiopia has long struggled with poverty and famine, it’s making great strides. Ethiopia is becoming a model of development thanks to governmental leadership and NGO’s (non governmental organizations). In the last generation, the world has made dramatic progress against hunger. Since 1990, the number of people living in extreme poverty has dropped by about half, from two billion to less than one billion. We’re on a trajectory to end extreme poverty in our lifetime.

It is encouraging and heart-warming to see so many images of hungry Guatemalan and Ethiopian children being fed, or of eager youth in classrooms and women pumping water at new wells rather than having to carry water long distances. And it is gratifying to see poor people prospering in their home countries instead of migrating to the United States and elsewhere.

To his credit, Rick acknowledges serious obstacles to ending hunger, such as war, bad governance and corruption, and climate change. And he admits that Americans can be cynical about our government’s previous development aid to Third World countries, aid that was not invested wisely. But he claims that “smart development aid” from American and other NGO’s is making a big difference in Guatemala and other locations.

I want to believe him. And after watching his special, I do believe him for the most part. But I must confess that I’m one of the American cynics whose disappointment in past aid efforts has led me to be skeptical not of our good intentions, but of the efficacy of those efforts. If, however, Rick is right that smart development aid from NGO’s is different from and more effective than bureaucratic and wasteful government-to-government assistance, then I’m all for such smart investments.

I don’t trust incompetent, corrupt, and power-hungry dictators in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, or Russia. And I don’t trust big corporations or big religion. But I do trust Rick Steves and NGO’s such as the World Food Program, Bread for the World, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Catholic Charities.

I’m saddened and disappointed by my occasional bouts of despair and judgementalism at the state of the world and of the human race. But I’m animated by the hope and idealism of people like Rick who believe in what Abraham Lincoln once described as the “better angels of our nature.”

And if Jesus can inspire people like Rick Steves and Abraham Lincoln, then he’s OK with me.