All the Lives You Can Change

Corrie ten Boom's thoughtful, courageous love saved some eight hundred lives. Her story opens the invitation of this course: the impact-driven life, where love is measured not only by our intentions but by what actually happens to the people we help. Then, through the parable of the good Samaritan, we explore radical empathy.

Good intentions are not enough. The most effective charities can do a hundred times more good than the average, which is why Jesus' charge to be “shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves” belongs at the heart of Christian giving. And if all people are equal, all causes are not: the ITN framework (importance, tractability, neglectedness) helps us prioritize between the world's problems.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your mind.” True love is thoughtful love, and this session commends seven epistemic habits for thinking clearly in service of our neighbors. Then we identify the five obstacles that hold us back from effective love and how we can overcome them.

For many of us, money is the most flexible resource God has placed in our hands, and passing it on wisely is a key way to love our neighbours in poverty. We weigh John Wesley's counsel to “earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.” Then we turn to our careers: eighty thousand working hours, and the question of how, like Esther, we might be placed “for such a time as this.”

From Joseph and Daniel to Esther, Wilberforce, and Martin Luther King Jr., Scripture and history are full of people who used influence for the good of others. We explore influence as a resource we all hold in our families, churches, workplaces, and votes. The course closes with the book's five callings and its final word: grace. We are not saved by our impact; we are invited into this work as beloved children.