How do we find the perfect balance in our lives between caring too much about everything, or not caring at all about anything? This may sound like a strange question, but I am convinced that discovering this balance is an art.
One night last week, after our boys were down and our house was (finally) quiet, my wife and I were talking about life and about the events of our day. As we talked about life, my wife told me about an awful story that she had read in the news. Let’s be honest, most news stories are not that encouraging or uplifting, but this story was an absolutely tragic and terrible story. As she shared this story, we began to talk about how broken our world seems to be… (I know, this is not the greatest topic of discussion for our pillow talk.) As the conversation drifted elsewhere, my thoughts quickly moved to another topic and we haven’t talked about that story in the news since then.
The next morning as I reflected again on the news story, I woke with a pressing question in my mind; Am I moved enough by the brokenness of the world around me, or am I so used to the bad news that I am no longer impacted by the stories? And, is it even healthy for me to be moved emotionally by all of brokenness around me? I mean, with the amount of stories that we read in the news each day, I would surely be emotionally drained if I let myself be emotionally connected to each story, right?
Have you ever asked similar questions? These types of questions get amplified when we begin to read the many commands of Scripture that call us to care for the “least of these,” for the broken, for the poor, for the widow, and for the orphan, and then we look at our world and see the overwhelming amount of broken people who are hurting, marginalized, and in need.
How do we balance caring too much by constantly wearing the pains of the world around me, and caring too little by ignoring the pains of the world around me?
“Do for one what you wish you could do for many.” – Andy Stanley
This quote from Andy Stanley is gold, and I have found it to be incredibly valuable in my life as a Christian and as a Pastor. The reality is that I will not be able to do everything for everyone. I don’t have the resources and I don’t have the emotional capacity. But, this does not give me the excuse to do nothing.
So for me, the answer is to do what I can do for the few in my life that I can help, and to encourage others to do the same. If we take this approach, we will protect ourselves from allowing the magnitude of the need to cripple us from doing anything for anyone. And, if we each take this approach, we will be able to care for the needs of our community, our city, our nation, and even our world more effectively as a Christian community.
Do for one what you wish you could do for many. So, who is your one?