Welcome to today’s reflection.
Today, I reflect on the helplessness I sometimes feel when confronted with poverty and suffering, and what it might mean to follow Jesus when the need seems so much greater than anything we can offer.
I switched on the news this morning as I always do, and once again I felt helpless.
I only watched it for twenty minutes whilst drinking my morning coffee, but it was the sheer scale of desperation that left me feeling bewildered. Families with children being displaced, people living in extreme poverty in their own towns, and communities dealing with complete desolation were all presented to me.
My first reaction was frustration. What could I do? I could send money to an aid agency, and that might make me feel like I am doing something, but it would feel like a drop in an ocean of need. Whatever I manage to give today, there is nothing I can do to prevent the suffering that is happening right now, around the world. So I switched off the television and walked Hank, aware that many people did not have the privilege of that routine.
Poverty is happening not just around the world but closer to home as well.
I am not going to pretend that they are comparable to some situations around the world, but in the past few years, the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ has widened considerably. I know there are now families in my town who are wondering where their next meal is coming from, as we seem to be in the middle of what our leaders call a ‘cost of living crisis’ in England.
What do we do with this? How do we begin to help others on this scale?
