Taking a cue from the awesome Van Halen video, Right Now (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMV-fenGP1g), I’d like to try and remind myself of how small my problems really are…

Right now, a mom is gently placing flowers on her baby’s grave, tears anointing the ground, the grief so near, so crushing it can only be understood by those poor souls who’ve experienced the same.

Right now a child is hiding from his daddy, praying to GOD he’s not found. Terror has frozen his mind, a white-knuckle grip on the closet door knob.

Right now, Sam and Nancy are wondering where their precious son, Sammy, could be. Their hearts are crying out to God for some semblance of peace and relief.

Right now a beautiful soul is selling herself to a sweaty, bloated stranger for drug money, desperate for the high which will, for a few minutes at least, allow her to forget what a disaster her life has become.

Right now a teenage boy is frantically searching for a father figure, as his real dad rots away in prison for crimes too ghastly to speak of aloud.

Right now an incarcerated man is crying out to Jesus for redemption, frenziedly seeking peace of heart and mind.

Right now that same man is begging…BEGGING…God to bring his family back. He fully comprehends the carnage he’s facilitated, the only thought keeping him from slicing his wrists with a home-made knife being the remote possibility of reconciliation and love.

Right now a great-grandma is doubled over in torment, exhausted from the pain but too stubborn to quit. Ignoring her agony, she sends her son a text: How are you doing, sweetie?

Right now, tears crawl down the cheeks of a pretty, 16 year-old girl as she perilously seeks a reason not to hang herself with her mama’s belt.

Right now, many of my family members are in dreadful pain, fighting off depression, anger and despondency with the only weapons in our arsenal: prayer and laughter.

Right now a mother is standing in line at a shelter, her babies hiding under her tattered coat in an attempt to shield them from the ugliness of the streets.

Right now Jamie is smiling, believing God will answer her prayers and comfort her mother, who is recovering from a surgery, an ocean and a world away.

Right now an old man is shivering in his bed, abandoned, terrified of what comes next.

Right now a pastor is in the throes of a terrible fever, chilling, drenched in sweat, asking the Lord to give him the strength to prepare tomorrow’s sermon.

Right now Aaron is gritting his teeth, bracing himself for the pain of standing, walking. Grabbing two canes to help him with the short journey, he shuffles across the floors of the rehab center which pays him to try and assist addicts, praying he may play a small part in preventing them from staggering the same harrowing path he trod.

And right now, God is telling us we must be Jesus to every hurting soul we encounter…