By Ami Waters

As a physician, one of my greatest privileges in life has been to sit at the bedside of the sick. However, though I am often able to treat the illness, it is at times obvious that illness is only the symptom of a greater need. This has been just as true in the public hospital where I now work in Dallas, as it is in the remote communities in Liberia where I worked in the past. Admittedly, in the face of this, I sometimes find myself overwhelmed by the needs of this world. And when the needs feel endless, something can happen in me: I can begin to see the need before I see the person.

A hungry person can become hunger.

A homeless person can become homelessness.

A struggling family can become a statistic.

A sick child can become health inequities.

A person asking for help can become one more need that I don't have the capacity to meet.

We cannot solve every problem in the world. We are not God. We will never have enough resources, enough time, enough money, enough energy, or enough wisdom to meet every need we encounter. That can become an excuse to do nothing.

Yet, Christ invites us to see things differently. The beauty of belonging to the Church, and particularly our Transfiguration community, is that I am not asked to meet all the needs on my own but rather to join my generosity with all of you. Our God is a God who takes our offering of fishes and loaves and multiplies them to meet the needs of His people.

Christian generosity begins with releasing ourselves from the burden of having to fix everything. We don't have to save the world. God already has. We are instead invited to participate in what God is already doing. When we encounter a need, perhaps the question isn't: "How am I going to solve this?" but rather, "Who is the person standing in front of me, and what do I have to offer?" I am grateful I do this amongst all of you and lift my voice with yours in prayer.

"You are the God who gives fully and without reserve, who gave your Son for the healing of this broken world. You see the needs of all your people, and you call us to see them, too. Give us courage not to turn away or look past the suffering of others but rather give us the strength to remain present even when what we see makes us uncomfortable. May that discomfort awaken our compassion rather than our indifference, and move us to respond with generosity. Take our individual gifts, resources, time, and multiply them so that our collective offering might become more than we could imagine and bring nourishment, healing, and hope to a needy world."