I sit here this afternoon contemplating what to make for dinner – the job of deciding, I find, is harder than the preparation. And then I think back to this morning when I met with Cheryl, my prayer partner, and we prayed for those who lost their homes, relatives and employment from the results of the hurricanes and realize my dilemma would be a welcome relief to so very many people. My woes seem big to me until I see the larger picture and find out how small they really are in comparison to many others in the world. Isn’t that always the case when my view is only as big as my mirror?
Like all of you I am reading of the recently homeless in the Carolinas, Florida, Israel, Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. And then there are the continually homeless and the temporarily homeless, and sometimes I can get overwhelmed with sorrow for the state of affairs in our world. That is when I really recognize what the terrible effect of the very first sin brought upon our world. One single sin thousands of years ago and here we sit in this awful mess. But, thankfully, God is still in charge, and we can still repent.
Do you, like me, wonder why God is so very patient and long-suffering with us? It wasn’t terribly long after the world was created that God had Noah build the ark, and then He flooded the world because the spread of sin had infected everyone to the point of hopelessness – all except Noah and his family.
By time estimates Adam would still have been alive when Noah’s father was born. Adam, the man who had stepped away from his faith for just one moment, had to watch as the world around him decayed so terribly that not long after his death God decided to destroy most of mankind. All this happened because of Adam’s original bad choice to sin by doubting God’s truth.
So am I responsible for some of the horrible things that are going on in our world now? Of course I am. My bad decisions, my sins, have effects on others, and if I could correct them I would, but I am years away from so many of those actions that those effects have already had their own consequences. It is a horrible cycle, and I can do my part to hinder it now through prayer, obedience to God and by teaching others about God and His Son, Jesus.
The world is never going to be right again, and God tells me this is so, but I can do my part in my little section of the world to honor God and spread the life-giving word of salvation through Jesus. As I see each of the terrors of the world – very large and very small – I can pray and ask God what He would like me to do to help or how He wishes me to pray for relief for those who need it.
I am reading a book by Amy Carmichael, a missionary to India in the early 1900s. The book was written while she was suffering injuries from an accident that caused her to be bedridden for the remainder of her life. In it she reflects on her Savior and tells how she learned to sit in contemplation, now unable to assist with any of the work at the Missionary House she founded.
God was teaching her a hard lesson in obedience in a new way that she really did not want to have to suffer through, but she did learn from it, and now, as I read her words written over 100 years ago, they give me hope and encouragement. Ms. Carmichael’s redemption is challenging my Christian walk these many years later all to show me that God can also use my obedience to Him far out into the future. Just as the consequences of my sin affect the future, so now does my obedience. How wonderful to know that God can redeem my sins when I cannot.
I can do nothing alone about homelessness, world poverty, wars, floods and fires, but I can join with other believers asking God to send help or to volunteer myself. I might not be able to muck-out a house, but I can donate to many Christian organizations that are on the ground within hours of these disasters with food trucks, medical tents, doctors and cleaning teams. These teams are doing their work for God in humbleness and obedience all to God’s glory, which will also affect many lives well into the future.
God is so kind to give us a chance for our sinful lives to be redeemed by Jesus the Redeemer.
Editor’s note: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
