Bush and I were talking about a social problem in our city and I concluded, “There’s just nothing we (the two of us) can do.” The next day he told me he had been thinking and there was something we could do. There is always something we can do about an issue even if it’s short of doing everything. His suggestion was a viable option for the two of us. Duh, yes, we can do that. It’s well within our capabilities.
I get easily overwhelmed. My to-do list, all I’d like to accomplish, the challenges my kids face, all the people I want to know better, world affairs – it’s like I’m on the game show where I race down the grocery store aisles getting as much in my cart as I can against the clock which is my lifetime. I feel the responsibility of solving unsolved and unsolvable problems. Often this involves having skills I don’t have, influence I don’t have, talent I don’t have, and power I don’t have. And sister, in my mind if I ain’t solving them, ain’t no one solving them.
Do you know what’s beautiful? People feel like I do, (in a normal way) and they are moving forward in their difference-making. They are using what they have and where and who they are to do what they can.
This month I attended an attorneys general conference on the opioid epidemic. Speakers included law enforcement, physicians, nurses, politicians, marketers, attorneys, judicial officials, 501 (c) 3 orgs, software designers, oral surgeons, and pharmacists all in positions of leadership and influence. They didn’t just blah, blah, blah about the problem, they shared actions taken and results obtained. They were passionate and resolved. They were not moms of addicts, except for one that I know of, and they cared deeply and are working tirelessly.
What were you doing there, you ask logically. I’m not entirely sure, but when I introduced myself at our lunch table, they embraced the mother who had lived through what they are trying to prevent. I guess I represented you. People you and I don’t know are working on our behalf.
I just came from our group of moms who pray for beloveds in addiction. Once a month we pray for the names strewn across the table on narrow pieces of white paper. Some moms have been coming for a long time and things appear stagnant, the same, unchanging. It feels discouraging.
But God, who put all those hard-working folks at that conference in their positions at such a time as this, somehow inspires them to fight the opiate epidemic. Each of them in their cubby of expertise is doing their part. I can’t do what they are doing.
The headlines don’t tell that story. We also rarely get to see what God is doing behind the scenes in the lives of people we love. I think because I don’t see or know about it, it’s not happening.
It’s been said, “God invented time so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” I picture God winking, “But oh, believe Me, it’s happening.”
That’s so great to hear about the conference and all the various people/organizations involved intent on change. It is such a practical reminder of how God works – behind the scenes, using things and people we would never imagine, yet quietly, sovereignly, accomplishing His purposes. It is a great reminder that His is Lord and He is trustworthy and good.