When you really think about the state of the world, it can feel heavy to consider all the people who need love and help. If you want to serve those in need but don’t know where to start, Sharon Eubank shares two pieces of advice on a recent episode of the All In podcast. Sharon is the director of Humanitarian Services for the Church and recently authored the new book Doing Small Things with Great Love.
1. Go Small
Sharon relates to feeling helpless in the face of tragedy, stating that she can feel overwhelmed by the paralyzing and complicated questions of our world. “I’m just one woman. What can I do?” she sometimes asks herself.
“[There’s] this age-old question that people have of ‘Why is there so much suffering in the world?’” Sharon says. “I think it’s a legitimate question, but I also think that we know in scriptures that this is the point in our spiritual development that the Lord has said, ‘I’m going to let you decide and choose.’”
She illustrates her point with a recent example from her own life:
“I have been so stirred up about Ukraine’s position. They’re being forced to accept a peace plan that was drawn up by other people without consulting them, but it impacts them the most of all. I can’t sleep at night, and I’m upset, but there’s very little that I can do. Even with Church resources, I cannot impact that issue.”
But Sharon explains that although she can’t do anything about the peace plan itself, she can go smaller.
“I can reach out to Ukrainians that are living in North Salt Lake, where I live,” she says. “I can stand up when other people in my community are being ramrodded, and I can be a voice for them. Although I can’t do much about the big issue right now, I can take that principle, and I can apply it in smaller ways. ... It gives me a little bit of power so that I can push against some of those, what I call, ‘corrupting influences’ in the world.”
We don’t need to let the enormity of the world’s suffering paralyze us into inaction. Putting to use our precious gift of agency, we can choose to do small acts of kindness, for “out of small things proceedeth that which is great” (Doctrine and Covenants 64:33).
2. Pray
Sharon says that her second piece of advice is more powerful than her first: turn to prayer.
“It’s easy to dismiss prayer, like, ‘Yes, yes. We can all pray,’” she says. “But there’s a real power in prayer.”
She mentions James, Jesus’s half-brother, who becomes the bishop of Jerusalem and author of the book of James in the New Testament. Throughout James 5, he asks the question of what should be done in the face of suffering and corruption—how can we endure our afflictions until Jesus comes again?
In verse 16, he writes, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
“I really believe in that,” Sharon says. “Jesus says, ‘Ask and you’ll receive; knock, and it shall be given unto you.’ He says [variations of] that 20, 30 times in the scriptures, and James says this will avail much. So, when I’m wondering what to do in the face of corruption, … I can do everything that’s in my power to do, and then, I can kneel and pray to God and say, ‘Will you intervene?’…
“And I believe with every Christian cell in my body, there’s power in that. There’s power to bring forth help and aid beyond what we are able to do, and that’s the power of faith that helps me when I can’t do anything else.”
Listen to Sharon’s All In episode here.
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