Defeated

I've been feeling pretty defeated lately.  I look at the world and get overwhelmed by the amount of pain that is inflicted on one human being by another.  I feel a sense of urgency to intervene and save those who are drowning in suffering.  I think and plan and try to feel what others are feeling so that I can empathize with them.  Then I cry because I realize there is nothing I can do.  People are grieving and I can't save them - no one can.  Basically, the world is just awful and crappy and full of pain.  I'm overwhelmed by this and feel the cloud of depression hanging over me. 

But the truth is, I've been handling this completely wrong.  It's true - I can't save anyone.  Thinking that I can is putting myself on a pedestal from which I will surely fall.  It is not my job to be anyone's savior.  It's Jesus'.  Hopefully, I can be used by Him, but HE is the only one who does the saving.  Not me.  Forgetting to focus my attention on being used by Him in the midst of the pain will only result in tiring efforts without results.

I'm reading the devotional Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, which is written as if God is speaking to us.  Today's devotion said: 

When you set out to find Me in a day, you discover that the world is vibrantly alive with My Presence.  You can find Me not only in beauty and birdcalls, but also in tragedy and faces filled with grief.  I can take the deepest sorrow and weave it into a pattern for good.  Search for Me and My messages, as you go through this day.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with your whole being.

He is there, even in the midst of all of the pain.  It's not our burden to bear alone.  The pain won't go away, and we can be there to be used by Him, but we don't have to be swallowed up by the pain.  We can find Him in it and be used by Him to help others out of it. 


Romans 8:28