You

The Problem

What problem are you going to fix in Haiti?

Are you going to fix a bare cinderblock house,

stacked one on another,

among thousands and thousands,

stretching for miles like concrete ivy,

up mountain ridges, into valleys,

down city streets and through alleyways?

Are you going to paint this house?

Are you going to mend the roof or patch the wall or sweep the floor?

What are you going to fix in Haiti?

Are you going to scrape filth from the streets?

Are you going to spend a week shoveling garbage?

Where will you put it?

Will you come back next month to do it again?

What are you going to fix?

Are you going to plant trees on deforested land?

Will you plant a forest? Will you recreate the rainforest?

Are you going to fix infant mortality, infectious disease,

mortally dangerous jobs and environmental toxins?

Then what? Will you fix over population?

What are you going to fix?

Are you going to fix economic injustice?

Are you going to fix government corruption?

Are you going to fix unemployment?

What are you going to fix by coming here

with hammer and nail and muscle

and books and teachers?

What problem are you going to fix?

Nothing.

You will fix nothing.

So then…

Do not come here to fix.

The problem is not an adequate house.

The problem in not lack of healthcare.

The problem is not street children or filth or pollution or corruption.

The problem is not Haiti.

The problem is you.

The problem is that you have already been given two simple instructions to fix the world:

Love God. Love Neighbor.

And you just can’t do it.

You just won’t do it.

The problem is you.

So do not come here to fix with your wealth and energy and good intentions.

Do not come here to solve a problem or do a project or complete a mission.

You are the problem.

You are the project.

You are the mission.

And it is God who is the problem solver.

God is the builder.

God is the missionary.

So, come here and let God fix the problem that is you.

Come here so that God can build a concrete space for understanding

in the rubble of your heart.

Come here so that God can hammer away the injustice rampant

in the economic structures of your mind.

Come here so that God can scrape away the filth

from the streets and alleyways of your soul.

Come here so that God can plant trees of inspiration

in the deforested soil of your spirit.

Come here so that God can melt your hardened heart.

Come here so that God can do mission work in you.

And yes, you do need to come here.

Because, when you are here,

God will work faster than when you are at home.

At home, you will always be in the way of God’s work:

your plans, your possessions, your prejudice, your life.

God will make more progress when you are here.

So come here to be the mission project of God.

Come to Haiti to let God fix the problem that is you.

God will do that here.

In Haiti God will fix the problem that is you.

And as God does,

So will God fix Haiti.

By Thomas C. Harris