What do you do with your shock and emotion when the bad news breaks?
You read the news – people dying in Syria and Darfur not to mention unthinkable acts of violence in our backyard. Then a friend gets diagnosed or is in a financial mess.
There is a lot you want to do for relief but often the relief is temporary at best.
Notice what you see happening in your world. What you think is the root cause?
Then do what you can do.
If you think there is too much violence, then talk with more compassion. If you think there is a problem parenting, be a more present and expressive parent. If you see too many wounded warriors coming home from war do what you can to build bridges with people who are battling around you. If you see a young man who is closed down offer an ear. If your friends start getting divorced invest more in your marriage.
Unless it’s you, it’s too easy to see other’s suffering as an abstraction. The mind can’t grasp a billion starving people or hundreds of thousands of people being killed so it tends to shut down. “What can you do?” Is a natural response.
Do what you can do. Each day. It is your prayer to help heal the suffering. It’s more useful than living in fear. If enough people do what they can do…