No Such Thing as Helpless

My walk to work takes me past a couple of dumpsters for neighborhood use. One morning as I passed, I noticed the sound of a puppy's cries. When I looked over the side of the dumpster I saw a tiny tan puppy, hardly a week old and the size of my hand, straining against the weight of garbage in which it was stuck, yelping for someone to take notice. It was just a puppy, but my emotions tore at me as I stood there listening to its little yelps.

I wanted desperately to reach in and rescue it, but the problem is that the attitude toward dogs is much different than I'm used to seeing in America. They live on the streets, find food in the garbage heaps, run away from boys who throw rocks at them. A few people keep them as pets, but in general they aren't valued at all. So when unwanted puppies turn up, they are simply thrown onto the garbage heap with the rest of the trash. A woman walked by me with her child, saw my distress and stopped to sympathize with me and the cries of the little dog. "Terrible, terrible," she said, lending support to my perspective that life, even an animal, shouldn't have to suffer. But there was nothing we could do. Even if I had saved it, I don't have the resources or time to take care of it. Picking up that one helpless little puppy wasn't going to save puppies from being thrown into dumpsters because the problem is rooted in people's attitude toward dogs.


Two days later, I walked by the same dumpster. Again I heard puppy-cries. This time it was a chocolate-brown one, the same size as the other. And it was on the cement beside the dumpster, its two front legs broken, trying to drag itself away.

My head spun. My eyes watered. The most humane thing I could've done was end its misery, but I couldn't handle it. I hated that I was helpless by myself to do anything for those little puppies. I didn't grieve the puppy; I grieved the fact that they happened to be born into a culture that doesn't value them and throws them away like trash. For puppies to stop being thrown alive into dumpsters would require a change in attitude toward puppies.

I felt the weight of my total helplessness in the face of Albania's social problems. What can one person, or even a small group of people, possibly do to help bring about a more just society?

Popular American teacher and preacher, *Francis Chan, says his favorite Bible verse is James 5:17 which says, Elijah was a man just like us.

Elijah was one of those mega-prophets in the Bible who called down fire from heaven and laughed in the face of his enemies' gods. But Elijah and all those other Bible characters we've heard about since we were kids growing up in church were human. No different than us today, but their behavior demonstrated a faith in God that moved them to do and say some pretty bold stuff. They didn't dwell upon human reason and their personal inability (although Moses struggled a lot with that, and God still used him). Maybe that's why movements for God happen more often among the poor and uneducated; they don't have wealth, security, and education in which to place their trust, so they are naturally able to give the Holy Spirit more leeway to work.

I can do something significant, and I am not helpless, because that same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead and sat Him next to God in the heavenly realms lives in me by the Holy Spirit. I serve the same Lord who led other children of His to part the Red Sea, to kill a giant, to save the human race by building an ark, to be thrown to lions, to heal the sick, to free the demonized, and proclaim the knowledge of the One True God. Those people aren't fictional characters. Their stories really happened, and God used them because they believed in His power.

I find find myself repenting of such sinful, self-centered thoughts as…

• My personality doesn't allow me to do this well…
• I tend to not be… 
• I'm not outgoing enough…
• I'm not assertive enough…
• I have never done that before…
• I might make a huge mistake…
• I might offend someone and lose their good opinion of me… 
• I don't really need to pray this morning because…. (in other words, "I can get through this day on my own")

Since I am in Christ, such statements are an insult to the God of the universe who created me "fearfully and wonderfully" (Psalm 139:14) and in whose strength I can do all things (Philippians 4:13). I serve the same God whose Word spoke everything into being, and He is able to do far immeasurably more than all I could ever ask or imagine. I can't is a true statement, but not for those who are filled with God's Holy Spirit. Instead say, "I can because God can."

*I encourage you to watch Francis Chan's message on Psalm 23 and dealing with fear, which inspired some of these thoughts. It's a little long but totally worth the watch.