Big

"Big: of considerable size or extent."

Working in a relatively large international development charity rooted in Christian values - it's inevitable that my sense of perspective is often big. 

Over the past few months the destruction of homes and lives in India and the Philippines has evidenced the ruthless course of nature and the stark inequality of the world we live in. And I'm left, once again, wondering what I can contribute. Because I'm little and not big.

I've been thinking about how God intervenes in the world. What's going on with natural disasters anyway? How 'natural' are they? Questions that go beyond my brain, making me think for too long, and making my head hurt. Because I'm little and not big. 

We're encouraged to dream big, to think bigger and to imagine beyond our wildest dreams. But that's tricky when the dream is to end poverty and stop these disasters from happening. Sometimes the world seems too big and powerful for us to tackle. 

So much of international development is getting to the heart of the problem. The big issues. But we can't solve poverty or hunger or disasters overnight. And in these catastrophic moments, it seems like we haven't got very far.

...

Over the past couple of days I've been humbled as colleagues run around the building working on emergency appeals and dropping their daily workload to fight for those who've lost everything. Staff members counting donations, responding to emails, creating prayer points, actually praying, and so, so much more. Valuable tasks that help the big problem. 

I think there's something big about human compassion which stirs us to action. Whether that's through prayer or money or simply thinking beyond our islands. 

We can do something. 

"Big: of considerable importance or seriousness."