Helping Heavy Hearts in Church

I've been wondering why I haven't perked back up after our recent hurricane.  Sure, it was disruptive, but life is mostly back to normal.  Sure, we have repair work to take care of, but when have we ever not had repair work to keep up with?  There's the constant stream of stories out of Puerto Rico to remind me of how much worse it could have been.

In his sermon yesterday, our pastor reminded us that we've had disaster after disaster, seemingly something new every day.  And in the background, the biggest refugee crisis since World War II continues.  And it doesn't help to see government officials from various countries who are not behaving at their best (or--scary thought--maybe it is their best, but how can it be?).

Our pastor reminded us that we can't fix everything--no one can.  But we can donate to organizations who have the training and the resources to provide at least part of the fix.  We can donate to Lutheran Disaster Response if we want to assist those who have experienced the terrors of nature.  We can donate to Lutheran World Relief, who has a solid history when it comes to assisting refugees.

Our church's own food pantry needs donations--in the weeks after the storm, we've given away most of the food, even with a donation from FEMA.  Our pastor asked us to buy extra this week as we buy our own food.  I will.

Church sermons don't usually help me in the same way as yesterday's sermon.  I'd been beating myself up for feeling so weary.  It was good to be reminded that there are solid reasons why my heart is heavy.

And it was even better to be reminded of what we can do to help.