When I was in High School we had to endure 6 weeks of each of the Physical Education rotations. One of my least favorites was Gymnastics. We had to perform on the trampoline, the mats and then the balance beam. I could fake my way through much of it but the balance beam was my nemesis. I lack balance in life...always have. I walk into walls, fall off of ladders, trip over my own feet (cast at 7 years old)
And so now, at 57 years of age I find myself knocked out with all the pain and suffering around me. My friends are in pain and dying. Children are going to sleep cold and hungry. I long for an answer and ask God "How can I make a difference?"
If this is your prayer please join with me. If you have a solution, please share.
2 comments:
Sometimes it all feels so overwhelming doesn't it? This time of year always finds me at a low ebb when I feel to be such a little cog in a huge machine.
Jan
Hi Nancy--it's Kim
I know I've shared the starfish story with you before. It isn't original to me, but one of my friends and co-workers in the field of child welfare (social work with abused and neglected children and really, really hurting families) has this on her wall as a sort of "mission statement". It goes something like this:
One day a little girl and her father were walking along the beach. There had been a storm and the sand was blanketed with starfish washed ashore by the unusually high tide. The little girl asked her father what would happen to all the starfish, and he explained the "natural" outcome that they would die as a result of no longer being in the water. That made the little girl sad, and she started picking up starfish and throwing them back into the ocean, taking one from here and another from there, but making no notable change in the huge piles of starfish left on the beach. Her father watched for awhile, and as the girl continued steadfastly in this task he felt he needed to redirect her to a more realistic point of view. "Honey, that is a nice thought, but you don't need to do that. There are thousands of starfish here--you cannot possibly make a difference." The little girl thought for a moment, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea. "Well," she replied, "I made a difference to that one."
A single life is infinitely precious to the Lord--worth dying for. A single act of kindness, done before Him and given over to His intentions, can change a life.
Psalm 131, "My heart is not proud, O Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful (or difficult) for me. [Rather], I have stilled and quieted my soul...Hope in the Lord, both now and forevermore." This Psalm helps me stay focused on the small things I CAN do, the things that present themselves before me. I have learned that in doing them I may very well be participating in a much larger, more wonderful work of God, but when I try to look at the need or work as a whole I tend to become overwhelmed and frozen, feeling small and useless in the face of such great need and the nature of human suffering. So I stay focused on the "small" things, the one person or the one right thing He's set before me, knowing that my simple and limited actions are loaves and fishes in His hands. And meanwhile, individual lives can be changed completely as we "make a difference to that one..."
So just be open to the one thing, the "small" thing, the thing God gives you for your hand to do. Given to God it will make an impact much larger than we can envision.
Love you
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