Needs

"...when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?"
~Matthew 25:37

It is practically impossible to turn on the TV and not see people in need. With Harvey and Irma topping the news, with billions of dollars in damage, it is easy to focus our attention to the last big thing. It was just over a week ago, when all we saw on television was how to donate money to Harvey, now Harvey seems to be a fading memory as we turn out attention to Irma, then Jose then…

For those who are following closely it isn’t just hurricanes, there are forest fires in the northwest,  monsoon flooding in India, Nepal and Bangladesh (1/3 of Bangladesh is under water), landslides in Niger and Sierra Leone, earth quakes in Mexico, and the list goes on. Last week in Jr. High church school we talked about these needs. As we were talking about them I asked, “What can we do?” to which one student said, we could have a car wash and give the money to those in need. That is a great idea, something simple and practical. So I asked, “So we get money from a car wash, who do we give it to? Harvey? Irma? School kids in South Asia?” To which one student said, “That is hard!”

It is easy to get overwhelmed with it all. When you are talking about billions of dollars in damages what does $10, $20, even $1,000 do? It can do a lot, depending on how you look at it. $10 could provide a case of water to someone who is thirsty, or meal to someone who is hungry. It might not seem like a lot, but for those in need, that meal or that drink can be the very hope that they have been looking for. 

However, it isn’t just our money, it is also how we treat people, how we respond to people, and how we take care of each other. Jesus calls us to be different than non-Christians in such away that people know to whom we belong by what we do. My son, Trey, had a teacher who would always ask, “How do you eat an elephant?”  “One bite at a time.” How do we help the world?  One person at a time. I encourage you to look for little ways to make a difference in someone’s life.  Maybe it is holding a door for someone. Maybe it is encouraging a parent of a crying child or children. We don’t have to wait for big moments to make our impact on the world. If we want to change the world we have to be willing to do the little things in our everyday life for those around us who are in need.