What can I do?

I've lived in Thailand for almost three weeks now and I'm learning so much about the Lord, this culture, these people and their language. At times I feel overwhelmed but God gives us GRACE for the things He calls us too and it has been amazing.

For someone with the spiritual gift of MERCY, this can be a hard corner of the world to live in. I know that in America some of the same things happen but it is so much more blatant and obvious here. Things like prostitution, beggars, poverty, corruption, injustice and false religion are so visible here. One of the roads that we frequently drive down on our way home from down town has at least five or six very obvious brothels on it. The markets are full of beggars, maimed and crippled, some of them young children. And even in the grocery stores you see Buddhist monks with their orange robes and shaved heads, some of them very young boys, probably about seven or eight years old.

I don't want to paint an over-dramatized picture, there are some parts of the city, like the mall, where it feels totally western with Thai people and Thai food. But the Lord has really opened my eyes to the poor, unlovely, unwanted and ignored people of the world. Like I said before, it's not easy living here seeing these things. I feel so overwhelmed sometimes, especially knowing that this is only a fraction of the human suffering in the world. I want to fix it all, to change everything right now and it is so impossible. It is a heavy burden to bear, the suffering of the world.

But then I remember I don't have to. I've been reading through the gospel of John since I've been here and the Holy Spirit has really highlighted Jesus' relationship with His Heavenly Father. Over and over Jesus talks about how He is doing the Father's will and following the Father.

"...I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me." (John 8:28)

When Jesus walked the earth He didn't heal every single sick person, He didn't raise from the dead every widow's son and He didn't deliver all of the demon possesed. But He walked in obedience to the Father. That is all He is asking of us. This morning I was having a hard time with all of this and I was asking the Lord, what can I do? And it was like He said,

"Listen to my voice and respond"

I don't want to just accept and be okay with the fact that there will always be suffering in the world until Jesus returns but I, we can't live life miserable and depressed because we can't save the world. That was Jesus' job; it is our responsability to follow Him. To take up our cross daily, to die to ourselves and do whatever He asks of us.

We can't do everything...but we can do something.