"We don't adopt the world. It has adopted us. We are in the world's embrace, for we partake of its culture, language and values.

Yet we don't need to accept all of its dictates. We can live in the world and be be guided by a different vision. Not only that, but we can also seek to change our world. This requires strenuous activism and even more strenuous resistance for the world will attempt to seduce those who walk to the sound of a different drum." (Dare to Journey with Henri Nouwen, Charles Ringma, Reflection 153--The Midst of Life, Prayer and Activism. For more on Henri Nouwen click HERE).

It seems, more days than not, the whole world is in crisis.

I sat with a couple, very dear friends of mine, whose son suffers with mental illness including psychotic breaks. The burden they carry for the son they love is a heavy one. There was a death at the local gym this week. The director texted and asked if I could meet with a very shaken staff. I got a similar message from someone in law enforcement. "Can you help some people in grief."

I'm sure people with similar needs sought you out.

But this is our world and it has adopted us.  It is here and now we live our lives and conduct our ministries. The words of Queen Esther apply to us, "I was made for such a time as this."

How can we maintain our hearts of care and build sustainable ministries that make a difference in the world instead of being consumed by the turmoil that surrounds us?

The one with compassion and the strength to make a difference is  "'the one who enters the center of the world and prays from there.' A new vision of life does not require the cloister. It can come from the midst of life, but only to the one who prays." (This is more from Dare to Journey, Reflection 153)

Caring people need to be praying people and praying people do not need to leave the world to pray, but enter into it. It is from the dark places we seek God. The prayer in the foxhole, beside the hospital bed, in the oncology clinic or with the grieving loved one, are raw, urgent, fervent and authentic. The parent of the prodigal child, the pastor who agonizes over his church's conflict or lack of growth and the person who suffers in need, will cry to God for help, strength, peace, hope and God's presence.

While this post is about prayer, it is even more about praying, living and ministering is a very troubled and overwhelming world.

How can I care when there are so many needs and they are so intense? "I don't feel like I am doing enough. I cannot fix things."

But if we remain faithful in the small things and the situations that God brings to us, even when they are dark and dangerous, we will be obedient to our calling and heroically minister to people with the greatest needs in the worst of circumstances.

Then God will change the world.