What Can You Do?

The above question is asked in all kinds of situations. When something seemingly inevitable happens, a person shrugs and asks, "well, what can you do?" because really it was going to happen anyway. When someone is sick or they have a problem it's stated a little differently, "what can I do?" Give me a task, a mission, a tangible "thing" that I am capable of handling and it will be done in short order.

When faced with a problem or question in the bigger picture of life, it takes on a different meaning. Didn't John Kennedy say,  "ask not what our country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." What can you do? Usually in this context we are talking about sacrifice kinds of things, time, money, something that is required of you out of the ordinary. And so we come to the time of the church year known as Lent. And this question becomes sort of a stickler. Because most of the time what you can do during Lent is something benign or insignificant by the world's standards. If you give up something like sweets or coffee, no one really notices except the person at the coffee shop where you stop every day to purchase a doughnut and a coffee (or maybe the people you interact with without that shot of caffeine--this may not be a good thing to give up!). But then Lent isn't supposed to be "showy" or "grandstandish". Its a time of reflection and contemplation. So what can you do?

There is a really easy answer to this. It doesn't cost any money, isn't showy or grand, in fact its quiet and most people would not even be aware you are doing it. It's praying. We can pray more often, or more earnestly. We can pray that today will be easier than yesterday, or that world peace could happen in our little corner of the world. Or we could pray that the person that annoys and distracts us at work, won't do that today. We can pray for our ministry, for our ministers, for our Nursery and afterschool programs, for our family in Christ. We can pray and just say thank you for breathing in and out today. Prayer is one of strongest, quietest, personal things you can do to communicate with the Almighty. What can you do? Let's all pray. And see what happens next.