C.S. Lewis once said that just because Jesus told us to be innocent as doves, it didn't mean that we should lay eggs.

I thought about that quote while riding in a bus to visit tsunami sites in southern India .

In front of our bus were two guys in a truck. Believe it or not, they were sitting on eggs. The road was bumpy, but they must have felt confident that those eggs wouldn't break

It was a physics lesson I also learned as a boy: you could put an egg lengthwise between thumb and forefinger, and press as hard as possible, but the egg wouldn't break.

Despite that, I was still amazed by what I saw.

Only later did I recall Lewis' observation about not laying eggs. That also has implications for Lutheran World Relief as it does its work in tsunami recovery.

There are moments when it is a virtue to be innocent as doves—when dealing with rumors, motivations, or even church politics.

But being savvy in relief and recovery work is also a virtue.

When projects are proposed there are questions to be raised. Knowing when to raise the questions and how to raise the questions requires skills and sensitivities.

Occasionally we lay eggs. When we are too innocent about partners' credentials or not discerning enough about the sustainability of a recovery project might be just such times.

Doing the work that Lutheran World Relief does requires some thought about long-range implications even for short-term projects.

So application forms ask for data at the start of the project against which achievements at the end of a project period can be measured.

In fact there is a shorthand acronym called “SMART” that guides recovery workers through a series of tests—like if the proposal is S pecific, M easurable, A chievable, R ealistic and T imed.

It could just be that sitting on eggs and being smart are compatible!

*Thiemann is a former LWR Program Director for Asia and the Middle East.  He served for six months as LWR’s Tsunami Consultant in India.

Photo credit: Jeff Thiemann

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