As I fly home from New Orleans I am left wondering how I might respond to a situation so devastating and seemingly without hope. As I wrote yesterday, I do believe that there is hope, and that the church is that hope, but the need is so great I start to wonder how we/I might make an actual difference. Often times I think we get discouraged by the magnitude of what needs to be done. I wonder if Jesus’ disciples felt the same way. I wonder what they thought as Jesus said to them, “go into ALL the world.” I mean, a bunch of uneducated fishermen… talk about over whelming.
I am starting to be convinced that is right where God wants us; in the midst of over whelming situations because it is in that place that we realize that we need God. We need him to show up or we will be left hopeless. God places us there because he wants us to know that it is him doing the work.
There is another side to the coin though. God often answers seemingly hopeless situations by sending his people. I can’t count how may times in scripture this is the case. God listens to his peoples’ lament, says that he hears them, and then commands them to go. I leave New Orleans today with the conviction that I must go.
