I was walking through a back alley in Old Delhi, India.
Electric wire twisted and turned above me like jungle vines while street vendors stood in dark corners, trying to shade their raw meat from the blazing sun. Street children ran to and fro, some stopping to beg for any loose change we might toss their way before they ran off after their friends.
Pray as you walk. That was our instructions.
But as the aroma of incense and human waste burned my nose and I watched a woman bow before a ceramic, four-armed elephant statue, my heart shattered within me and words ceased to exist. All I knew in that moment was intense despair.
God’s unyielding passion for His glory and the excitement of being a part of His plan to redeem the nations had driven me to India. Yet, as the end of my third week in country approached, the heaviness of millions of people who had never heard the name of Jesus paralyzed my soul.
Would another prayer for yet another person to hear and know Jesus really make any difference?
Was it even possible to be a visible light in a corner of the world that was darker than night?
Have you ever felt this way? So many circumstances can lead us to feel hopeless — another school shooting, a beloved church family shattered by divorce, endless news stories about ISIS and Ebola, neighborhoods wracked by poverty. It’s all around us every day.
Our children may sense it even more, feeling too small to do anything that matters.
Can I give you words of truth that might encourage you? I’m sharing them today over at (in)courage. Read the rest of my post here.
Related posts:
