During this holiday season, I hope you will consider to continue your support for the RISSE Amazon Wish List. This was our idea year ago, and it is am even more worthy idea today.

There are only six items left to choose from on the Wish List, every one of them will help support a refugee child or their family or teachers.

What a joy to wake up every morning and look at this list and watch it shrink – it started two weeks ago with 36 items. We are closing in.

My work with the Army Of Good over the past several years has taught me many things, one of the most important is the call to practical action to help others in need: the Christian and Hebrew prophets both heard the same instructions from their God: take real action in the real world.

I call it Practical Action, Small Acts Of Great Kindness. Focused and meaningful. There is joy in this work.

St. Francis and Jesus Christ both preached that practical action is at least as worthwhile as piety or righteous observance. Feeding a hungry person or helping a needy person is just as likely to bring transformation as prayer or meditation.

I put it differently. I don’t need to be a saint to do good, I don’t need to be perfect to be spiritual, even righteous. And it’s a good thing, because I am the farthest thing from a saint around.

So as we approach the New Year, I am thinking the prophets were correct. It feels good to do good.

True sharing, says the Kabbalah, requires a basic shift in the way we see our lives and our relationships to the people around us. I don’t care to prosper at the expensive of others, I choose to prosper by assisting others.

Please check out the Wish List if you can, and watch it shrink.

Audio: Thanks for supporting the RISSE Wish List