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<h5 style="padding-left: 210px;">Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/people/37913760@N03/">United Nations Development Programme</a></h5>
<strong>This has been a really long and difficult week.</strong> On Tuesday morning I woke up feeling like certainly it must be Wednesday or Thursday by now. Then the earthquake shook Haiti, and the week became indefinitely longer.

Of course, the thing that's difficult for me—being an action-oriented problem-solver with my hands tied—doesn't begin to compare to the horrendous, painful reality the people of Haiti have been facing.
<h4>What do you do when there's nothing you can do?</h4>
<strong>I have been thinking a lot, lately, about what it means to feel helpless and powerless.</strong> The feeling has hit me on so many levels: My daughter is sad about her best friend moving away at the end of this month. Two of my closest friends, who live several states away, are going through really difficult times in their personal lives (and one has withdrawn to the point of not responding to emails, etc., so I really feel helpless).

<strong>And then there's the overwhelming needs of people in Haiti.</strong> I can hardly bear to listen to NPR correspondents describing the scene. "Why does it take so many days to get water to these people?" I ask Jason, my emotions at the breaking point. I lose all common sense and start thinking "If only I could get over there with suitcases full of bottled water," or "If only I could convince someone with a private plane to go pick up the babies in that orphanage." I want to DO something. Donating money to Red Cross and World Vision doesn't seem like enough.
<h4>Can average individuals begin to counter enormous forces?</h4>
When Pat Robertson made this terrible situation worse, by saying the Haitian people have brought this devastation upon themselves, I sort of lost it. My heart broke, unleashing a helpless anger. <strong>What can a person like me do to counter a person like Pat Robertson, and all the people who wholeheartedly follow him?</strong>

The last couple of days, Twitter has been abuzz with people tweeting "Pat Robertson doesn't speak for me," while others, like my friend Cody, tweeted <span class="status-body"><span class="entry-content">"It's people like Pat Robertson &amp; his idiotic comments about Haiti that make me steer clear of Christianity." </span></span>

<span class="status-body"><span class="entry-content">When a pastor on Twitter suggested that all the outrage over Robertson's comment was a waste of time and energy, it made me stop in my tracks. Was it? <strong>Is it a waste to publicly denounce Robertson's comment, if it doesn't change a thing about what he thinks and does? Is it a waste to give $50 to a relief organization, if the water and medical supplies can't get to the Haitian people? Is it a waste for President Obama to tell Haiti "You have not been forsaken," if injured, thirsty and hungry people keep dying?</strong></span></span>
<h4>Words do matter</h4>
I suddenly knew that no, it isn't a waste. It is important. I'm not talking about empty words alone, followed by no sincere action. That is not enough. But statements of support do matter. <strong>It's important to stand behind what we believe, and to say "It's not OK to say that," or "Our hearts are breaking for you."</strong>

Of course, it doesn't feel like it changes much. It doesn't change the fact that the world has been ignoring the people of Haiti for far too long, or that Christians haven't worked hard enough to visibly counter ideas like Robertson's, in word and action. An email of encouragement to my friend doesn't change what's going on her her life, any more than hugging my daughter will change the fact that her best friend is moving away. <strong>But it's still important, and it's important for the "doers" among us to remember that, and be OK with that sometimes. </strong>Maybe not to stop there, and leave it at that, but at least to recognize it as <em>something</em>.<strong>
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Another Twitter friend, @hughlh, put it just right this morning:

<em><span class="status-body"><span class="entry-content">The message of Jesus is not that God will get you out of crap. Rather, it is that when you are in crap, you are not alone.</span></span></em>