Matthew 9:35-10:8

• Reflect alone or with a small group. 

As civil servants and frontline workers, our jobs are routinely done while understaffed and, at times, underpaid. The flow of patients, victims, suspects, car crashes, lift assists, and you-name-it will always engulf Responders at some point or another. For some of us, the mountain of work chronically afflicts us and leaves us in a state of burn-out. It can, and is, overwhelming. The needs of the many always outweigh the 40-hour workweeks of the few.

To say this phenomenon is new to the modern age is misleading. Even the 12 Disciples weren’t privy to a select group of helpers facing overwhelming odds. From the beginning of Scripture, God has called inadequate amounts of people to serve an overwhelming purpose. “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” is a fact of life. Yet this did not stop the disciples from passionately obeying Christ’s call. And neither should it for us. 

God has been asking His chosen people to go up against overwhelming odds for thousands of years. Not because they can handle it, but because He can, and He wants our trust and prayers (Matt 9:38). The Disciples trusted God to provide for them (Matt 6:245-34), and they went! We continue Christ’s mission handed down by the original 12. Our respective jobs have so much purpose in the core of Christ’s commands, and we at least get compensated for it (Matt 10:8). We may never have the right amount of staff, and being paid for our exact worth is probably a fantasy, but we’ll always have our God. He can handle all of it. Let’s trust in the Lord and face our overwhelming purpose!

Heavenly Father, 

We are the few workers, and you are the One True God. When the weight of our overwhelming mission bears down on our Spirit, remind us that You can handle everything, that you are always near, and that the light of Your Glory is brightest amongst the overwhelming odds. Amen