This post was inspired by a post by Steph earlier this week.
It also reminds me of a lesson I learned the hard way this year: No matter how much I do, I can’t save the world. No matter how much anyone does, none of us can save the world. But there is one who has already done so. Which means that, instead of helping others because it’s necessary, we’re free to help others because, well, we’re free.
I think that’s why God made us such vulnerable, needy people. And why rich people are often so discontented:
The presence of a need is an opportunity to love.
Woe to me if I live a life driven by sheer obligation and duty. What an empty, meaningless life.
I know a lot of you have probably read this time after time, but I urge you to read it all the way through and examine your own heart and your own deeds.
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels,
but do not have love,
I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have a faith that can move mountains,
but do not have love,
I am nothing.
If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,
but do not have love,
I gain nothing.
~Παῦλος, 5-67 A.D.
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I see people on the corner holding their signs
People in the road forming a picket line
Want the world to know they’re here
Trying to make their message clear
I honk for peace and hear them cheerWatch them smile in my rearview mirror
Keep on driving, just pass on by
I’ll honk again at the next sign
It’s hard to face reality, so I’ll just keep on dreaming
It’s plain to see, we don’t have the answers
But we think we know, and so it goes
It’s plain to see, we don’t have it together
But we think we know, so it goes on
Students in the green arms intertwined
Candles lit, swaying side to side
Show the world that we’re aware
But we’re not going anywhere
I can’t remember which petition I signed
But I sleep pretty well each night
Knowing that I’ve done my share in showing everyone I care
It’s hard to face reality, so I’ll just keep on dreaming
It’s plain to see, we don’t have the answers
But we think we know, and so it goes
It’s plain to see, we don’t have it together
But we think we know, so it goes on
But while we’re standing in the streets
They’re fighting off disease
I’m in the comfort of my bed
Not dealing with a shred
Of this war between nations and this war against nature
It’s a battlefield that I’ve never seen
It’s plain to see, we don’t have the answers
But we think we know, and so it goes
It’s plain to see, we don’t have it together
But we think we know, so it goes on
And so it goes on
Oh, must it go on?