It's Friday again and I've been thinking...again. In my last Friday Thoughts post, I shared about my ache to do MORE about the needs in the world around me. Today I'm still thinking along those lines. I've been fighting off the feeling of being overwhelmed this week as I see the amount of need. There are literally millions of people living in poverty. Millions more boys, girls and women are trapped as sex slaves.
Today I read an article about the millions (200 million estimated) of baby girls dying in places like India and China, solely due to the fact that they are girls. I cried out to Jesus and asked why. I hear these things and I want to buy a plane ticket or call an adoption agency - something rash and crazy but something none the less! But I don't have the finances to buy a plane ticket right now. I am by no stretch of the imagination in any place to adopt. Even if I could do those things, there is no physical way I could help all of the millions. The need is way bigger than me or my solutions.
So what is a girl to do?
First, pray. Sometimes I think we minimize the value and power of prayer. But our prayers, no matter how feeble reach the One who is the very opposite of feeble. When we pray, we partner with the creator of Heaven and Earth, the One who can help all of the millions.
Second, I can stop for the one. The ministry I spent my summer with in Mozambique, carries this as one of their core messages. In Luke 10 Jesus calls us all to love our neighbor. Our neighbors are the ones closest to us, the ones in front of us. The good Samaritan stopped for the one he encountered on the road. Jesus ended that story with a command to go and do the same. Every single person on the planet has unparalleled value to the Creator. Since I'm called to carry His heart, I am called to stop for the one He puts in front of me. This is what I can do. My heart still breaks for the masses of precious ones but I won't minimize the value of what I can do for the ones God puts in front of me. This isn't a solution for the millions but it's a start.
Who is the one He is asking you to stop for today?
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