URC Daily Devotion 1 April 2025

Safeguarding training can be quite depressing if you’re not careful. So can hearing stories about climate change and the environmental crises affecting our planet. Then there’s the plethora of appeals for people needing support in times of poverty, homelessness, famine, lack of access to clean water or education. I will stop there for fear of depressing you, and myself, further. The need is so great and we feel helpless to make a difference. I started thinking this way during some recent safeguarding training about the increase in children’s access to porn and online grooming where I felt a bit like King Cnut facing the incoming tide without even a decent pair of wellies.

I can’t change the world, but I can do my bit. I can’t stop the internet but I can make sure I am a safe person that the children and young people I engage with know that they can talk to without judgement. I can help them use social media and the internet for positive purposes. I can’t stop homelessness or poverty but I can make a donation to a charity like Beam to help one person into a stable home or employment. I can’t stop climate change but I can use the train instead of my car. And I don’t need to make a big song and dance about it – the important thing is that I do what I can and do it in God’s name.

My widow’s mite may seem insignificant, but mine and yours and yours and yours can make a difference if God’s in control. Let’s do it together – stop worrying so much about what we can’t do and concentrate on making sure we do what we can. 

Prayer

Jesus, who noticed the widow give all that she had, 
accept the gifts we humbly offer, 
whether they be money or time or effort or material things, 
and use them for your purposes. 
Don’t let our paucity become an excuse:
‘I can’t change the world so I won’t even try.’
But empower, equip and encourage us 
to change a little bit of the world, just where we are. 
Amen.