We came to the duck pond and one of the ducks was swimming near the shore. Max got out of the stroller and started throwing pieces of bread into the water. The duck moved closer and began to eat. More ducks saw the action and began to move towards this new source of food.
Then Max saw a plastic wrapper on the ground right near the water. "Mom! Trash!" he yelled. We had talked before about how you don't throw trash on the ground.
"Yes, Max, let me pick that up so the ducks don't try to eat it."
"Yeah! So the ducks don't eat it!" he agreed.
We fed the ducks and began the walk around the pond. But now that Max had seen one piece of trash, he saw more.
A bottle. "Mom! Trash!!"
A can. "Mom! Trash!!"
A McDonalds bag. A cigarette box. A plastic bag. A beer bottle. A container.
I was picking up and picking up and picking up. I had to put the trash in the only plastic bag I brought, and soon it was full. But I was so glad Max wanted to do a good thing that I kept on picking up and picking up. Soon the bottom of the stroller was full.
Why had I never noticed how much garbage there was around our neighborhood? It always looked pretty well-kept to me. All of a sudden, it seemed more like a dump. I started getting mad. How could people be so careless, so polluting? With my anger came exhaustion and resentment. I realized that I was no longer enjoying myself, no longer happy to be outside. I just wanted to go home. But I felt trapped. I did not want Max to see me giving up.
When we got home, we both had to take a bath. I had to clean the stroller with bleach. And I was in a bad mood.
Trying to do good is hard. Once you begin to serve God and to help people, it seems like all the problems suddenly become visible to you. You give one person some money, and five more ask you. You make a donation to a charity and they start calling you at home, sending you emails and publications. Your mailboxes are full of junk just because you sent ten bucks to NetsforLife or the Special Olympics. And I start feeling like I'm drowning in requests. I get mad and resentful. These people don't care about me, they care about my money! They just want to drain me dry!!
Speaking of draining people dry, I give blood when the blood mobile comes to church. I have O positive blood, the universal donor. Well, that blood mobile has taken to leaving me messages at home. I will give blood and about a month later they are asking for more. Sometimes I get to worrying that I won't have any blood left to give.
Most practicing Christians understand that we are called by God to give. We know that, and Jesus was very clear about it. But what we don't understand is that when Jesus gave, he had a plan. Jesus gave his life away. He healed people and taught people and cast out demons. But he also walked away and said no and took time to be alone. Jesus had a strategic plan. He knew exactly what God had called him here to do and he did it, no more and no less. He was focused on HIS JOB, the job that God gave him. And he stuck to the plan.
Look at the gospel for today. Jesus is teaching and healing and curing sick minds and the entire village turns out to be helped by him. Women with abdominal pain, children with fevers, men who could not walk - he heals them all. When darkness comes, he goes to sleep, probably exhausted after giving all his energy during the day.
But before the sun comes up, he gets up and goes away, alone, to a quiet place to pray. And there, in the presence of God, he gets clarity. He remembers why God has brought him to this earth and what he is supposed to do.
When the disciples find Jesus, he tells them that they are to move on. Even though there were still people who were ill, still people who were hungry for his teaching. There was some woman hoping to become well, a sick child, an elderly man. There were real people with valid needs who were searching for Jesus that morning and Jesus decided to leave them. He left them and moved on because he knew that God wanted him to make an initial impression in these villages and then move. He left without answering all their questions or solving all their problems, for he knew that God had a plan and it was his job to follow that plan and not to deviate from it.
Had Jesus stayed in that one village and fixed every problem there, cured every illness, tended to every need, had he done what the people wanted, he might never have died on the cross for us. We would not have known him.
God's plan is always the best plan. You see, when you follow God's plan, there is what I like to call the ripple effect. If you do what God has in mind for you and only what God has in mind for you, you may not fix every problem, but it is like a pebble hitting the water. The ripples will impact and influence people in ways that you cannot imagine.
After I had served in Kansas for seven years, I began to believe that God was calling me to serve somewhere larger. Our church in Kansas had five services and it was full on Sunday mornings. I felt God urging me to begin to look elsewhere. But I didn't want to go. I loved those people. We were doing wonderful work. I was planning a sabbatical to Costa Rica so we could begin a Spanish service. We were planning a great new ministry on the college campuses.
But I believed that God had something in mind and that it was my job to preach and worship with more people, to give people the tools to serve God in the world. When my family and I were called to come here, to the very Cathedral where I had preached my first sermon, I could not believe it.
But this call from God had a ripple effect. In fact, now that I look back, God was doing so many things. It was not just about me.
We moved into a rental home in Mandarin. The day that we moved in, a woman in her seventies came to the front door with her little grandson to welcome us to the neighborhood. Her grandson was exactly Max's age. They lived next door.
The woman told me that her daughter, her grandson's mother, had been battling cancer since he was born. So the little boy spent a lot of time at his grandparents house. He could not have brothers or sisters.
When the house next door came up for rent, the woman said a prayer to God. "Please," she said. "Please help a five-year-old boy move in next door."
And who should move in but Max. And those two boys have become best friends, probably for life.
I thought that it was all about me. But I was just the beginning. God was calling Max to be a friend.
As you prepare to serve God, ground yourself in prayer. Worship regularly and find yourself a small group to give you support. And then ask God for guidance. Don't just give to everyone who asks without prayer or plan. Reacting to people's needs does not change the world. Ask God for your focus, your personal vocation, and then stick to the plan. Don't let the results of your efforts or the overwhelming needs of the world deter you from what you and God have in mind. And you must check in with God daily to stay on track.
Find your focus, your particular role in the world and God will bless you with the ripple effect. Your small acts of service will do more than you can imagine.
A wise woman said something beautiful to me this week. She said that when Jesus hung on the cross and he said, "It is finished," it was not that all the problems of the world had been solved. He said "It is finished," because the job that God had given him was over. He had done the tasks that God had given him to do. His job was done. The Holy Spirit would take care of the rest, and the ripples of Jesus' life would change the face of the earth.
It is not your job to save the world. That is God's job. All that we can do is find out what God asks of us and do that. That's all that God asks.
