too much to do

ever feel overwhelmed by a task? i mean, have you ever looked at a situation in life and felt that the possibility of correcting that problem were just too far out of your abilities? think about world hunger, homelessness, civil wars, wars, violence - all problems we find overwhelming - they are much to big for us to solve. but are they? how do we as christians react to this? historicly we have ignored the problem, of formed committees to study the problem, but we have done little to truly solve the problem.

i remember not too long ago talking at a gathering of mission types - they ones who collect money so others can do the work. in our conversation i said it would be great if all the problems of this would could be solved, and one in the group said, "gosh, i hope not; we would all be out of work" - and the rest laughed. i sometimes wonder if we are doing mission work because we see a need, or because we see a job opportunity? are we collecting money to help others, or keep our jobs?

some say the words of jesus about the poor always being with us means we can never truly solve the problems facing our world - at best we can simply help comfort - well, notice what i wrote about comforting :) but let's see what else jesus told us:

"Because you're not yet taking God seriously," said Jesus. "The simple truth is that if you had a mere kernel of faith, a poppy seed, say, you would tell this mountain, "Move!' and it would move. There is nothing you wouldn't be able to tackle."

matthew records jesus (17:20) talking about faith, and how with faith we can do anything. when we think a problem can not be solved, it can not - but if we have faith everything is possible.