Monday, November 17, 2008

And Life Still Goes On

My word of the week is 'powerless'. You want that used in a sentence? How 'bout "I feel powerless to fix the problems I see in the world."
I've been silent in the blog world lately because I've been processing some complex emotions. Usually, my method of processing is ranting on here about what I think. The thing is that ranting on here does little good for me or, on my best day, the twenty people that read this.

Here's what's been making me feel powerless this week without my usual commentary:
1. Seeing street preachers with signs in the middle of downtown Seattle yelling at people that they're going to hell.
2. Realizing that college ministry may not be a top priority for the people that make the big decisions.
3. Reading this article about a recent vote by the Georgia Baptist Convention.
4. Fully understanding a profound statement one of my students made. "The world system should hate us, but the people should love us. Currently, we fit in with the systems, but the people hate us."
5. Seeing the people and country I love deal with death, economic downturn, sickness, and sin.

John Mayer and I have been on the same page for a while. We've both been waiting on the world to change. I'm tired of waiting though. I want to roll up my sleeves and make something happen. But what can I really do?

What can we do?

2 comments:

Michael said...

Those are some things that I can understand and have struggled with myself.

The best answer I can give is to keep on keeping on. You are doing a lot of good work up there and it's encouraging to me to hear from your blog and from Steve's about the good things going on regarding sharing Jesus. It's not an easy road we're called to but it is the only one that can give us real satisfaction and joy

Kim said...

I'm assuming you've heard the story about the person throwing washed up starfishes back into the ocean. If not let me know. That story keeps coming back and reminding me that we need to not give up from the overwhelming task, but to make a difference for "that one".

That being said, it's also good to wrestle with these things. It keeps up from being happy with status quo.