I recently read a magazine article about a human trafficking bust and couldn’t get the story out of my mind. All the next day my life felt too small, too safe. Guilt and shame over what I could be doing overwhelmed me. Have you ever felt that way?
Whenever I hear about any injustice, natural disaster, new diagnosis, charity lacking funds, family in crisis, community in conflict…I slip into a bit of despair. Suddenly I feel like I’m letting God down because I’m not saving the world (yes, I recognize the irony in that statement).
So as I lay in bed last night I asked Him, “What do You want me to do?” And an unexpected passage of Scripture came to mind:
Certainly there were many needy widows in Israel in Elijah’s time…Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, but the only one healed was Naaman, a Syrian. {Luke 4:25-27}
These words are spoken by Jesus in a showdown with the Pharisees but they make a point related to my struggle: Every need doesn’t automatically equal an assignment. In our individualistic culture we often forget we are part of the body of Christ. That means we don’t have to do everything. We only need to do our part.
Will you join me at (in)courage today to continue reading?
