“The man answered, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^“

A friend that I have now known for five years was profiled last week on the front page of a New York Times story.  She didn’t belong in this story, but she ended up there anyway and as I read it, knowing her, I could only imagine how devastated she must have felt.  I also felt the same way for her and I wondered to myself, “What can I do for her?”  I immediately wrote as much of a heartfelt note as I could, encouraging her to be strong and that those of us who knew her closely knows that she was characterized unfairly.  The same day, I was informed about a high school friend’s wife who was diagnosed with cancer.  I asked myself the same question, “What can I do?”  I sat down and pulled out a piece of stationary and a pen and wrote her and her husband a letter.  I had done the same the week before for another high school friend who is battling his own cancer.  And, I had done the same for a neighbor here in Rhode Island who suffered a stroke and embolism and who is now in an assisted living residence away from here.  The question of, “What Can I do?” seems to pop up more and more in conversations with friends and business associates as societal problems continue to increase.  I have found that the answer for, “What can I do?” is pretty simple.  The answer is, “I can do what I can do, if I just do it.”  And so, a note, a letter, a phone call, a donation, a hug, and a prayer might be all I can do, but I think it is what Jesus meant when He reaffirmed that we are to love our neighbor as we love our ourselves.

So today, let’s do what we can do.

Reference: Luke 10:27 (New Living Translation)