Two Sundays and 7,370 miles separated them. At the first venue, I sat wrapped in a shawl, seated in a plastic chair on a tile floor. They served chai in dixie cups outdoors. At the second, I wore jeans, seated in a padded seat before a large stage. They served coffee with flavored creamers in a lobby. But the question asked by the 2 speakers was the same, not different due to distance. “Who’s doing something about the desperation?”
N works in a city of 14 million, where clean water and basic health and safety don’t make it to the list of guarantees. To get to his speaking venue, we passed miles of shacks and shanties shoved into crevices surrounding highways and rivers and rail tracks. Everywhere. You get the strong sense the world was never meant to be this way. When N says, “What is happening in the world is breaking the heart of God, but it’s not taking God by surprise,” he speaks from a place of understanding.
“What is happening in the world is breaking the heart of God, but it’s not taking God by surprise.” – N.
J works in a combined city of about 300,000 people. Not everyone has a boat or a vacation planned, but many do. Not everyone has a dentist or a boat or a shed or grass to mow, but many do. Not everyone bought extra snacks to make watching a sports event more fun, but many did. The things we have and even the quality of life doesn’t change the fact we still see and feel the desperation of the world around us and in our own world. Regardless of the population or the culture or the quality of life, we all want to know, “Who’s doing something about the desperation?”
So if one question crosses cultures and boundaries and the lips of people in every language, what’s the answer? N and J both talked about Jesus. Whether or not you know Jesus or think Jesus is real or relevant, the fact that 2 people gave Jesus as the answer just 2 weeks and 7,370 miles apart makes it worth listening. Why Jesus?
“Jesus,” because the world wasn’t meant to be this way. It was meant to be a peaceful place where God had an intimate relationship with mankind. But N and J both point to the Bible record of how the human heart pushed back against God’s design from the beginning, creating the conflict we see and experience globally and personally. That rebellion (sin) is to blame for the desperation.
Answers for 300K
J told a story from the Bible in Luke 5, where friends brought a paralyzed man to Jesus. They carried their very personal desperation to Jesus, hoping He would do something. When you feel desperate in a job, in a marriage, in a family, in your own problems, you want help to fix it! Jesus did heal the man physically, but He also said, ““Friend, your sins are forgiven you,” (Luke 5:20).
J said, “Our greatest need in the world is the forgiveness of sins.” He gets that from Luke 9:25 where it says, “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but are yourself lost or destroyed?” We live in a world of poverty, violence, injustice, and disappointment. But gaining the whole world or the best job or trendiest kitchen or even the cleanest water source doesn’t matter if our own soul is lost. It’s not only a global question; it’s personal.
Answers for 14 million
N said, “Even if everything around me seems to be falling apart, in Him all things hold together.” He gets that from the Bible, where Colossians 1:17 says, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
J turned to the same Book on the other side of the globe where I sat in my padded seat. The same truth answers the same question. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved,” (Ephesians 2:4-6). Someone has done something about the desperation.
Answers for me in my desperation
So are you desperate? Desperate for help in family, relationships, work or everything? Do you wish someone would do something? Could you use some of that rich mercy and great love the Bible says God uses to make us alive? You can always message me privately, but you can also take a look at my friend Kathy’s helpful answer.
Padded seat or plastic chair, a few hundred thousand people or millions. The question we’re all dying to have answered is the same. Who’s doing something about the desperation? Jesus.
