Skip to content
Skip to content
Menu
Faith in the Unfolding
  • Home
  • Retreats
    • A Julian of Norwich themed retreat
  • Blog
  • Testimonials
  • Login
  • Shop
    • Checkout
    • Basket
    • My account
  • Privacy Policy
Faith in the Unfolding

Finding kindness by Doing the Possible

By sarahmiller on 13 November 202313 November 2023

Today is World Kindness Day. And boy does this precious world of ours, and it’s people, need a lot of kindness just now. There is so much sadness and pain, sorrow and suffering.

It can all feel overwhelming as we watch scenes on our screens from all over the world, that scream of ‘wrongness’; as family and friends near or far, travel through the unfathomable; as we live our own personal ‘hard’.

I read recently the idea that technology has allowed us to extend our sphere of concerns across time and space. Not a new idea, but that I read it in a book written in 1955, before the internet, 24/7 TV channels, mobile phones, computers, laptops, tablets, made me really think!
How much more have our own spheres of concerns grown since then?

We have so many people, in so many places in our hearts and minds and prayers, it can all feel too much to bear. Can’t it?

Photo by Louis Galvez on Unsplash

And you know something? That’s ok. Because it is. It is too much to bear. Truly.

“…modern communication loads us with more problems than the human frame can carry…My life cannot implement in action the demands of all the people to whom my heart responds.”

from Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gift From The Sea

We do not have enough hours in our day, enough money in our bank account, enough energy in our bodies to act on all of the concerns, desires, wants of our hearts to help, and heal, and bring justice and peace.

It is all, in truth, beyond us.
And that truth can hit us in different ways.

A few weeks back I started to feel the weight of it all in my body. I was agitated. Unsettled. Low. I had seen a news report with an image I can never unsee that broke my heart, and in truth, left me slightly traumatised.

My tummy started to turn, as stress always, for me, goes to my tummy. Broken sleep followed.

I wonder if you feel the weight of things in your body ?
And in what ways you feel it?
And if you are feeling those things now?

I felt heavy, wrung out, lethargic. But most of all helpless.
In face of everything, utterly impotent.

And then my mind formed some words that have become an anchor, giving me something to hold tight to.

Release yourself from the impossible and find what is possible for you

Just because I can’t solve it all, doesn’t mean I can’t do something. So what is the something that I can do?

I cannot take all the pain away. That is impossible.
But the thing I can do, and actually found I need to do, and is somehow helping me feel less helpless, is to lament. And light a candle. It won’t change the world. But it will change me. And that will make a difference. And prayer has to help.

Everyday I light a candle, and ask the Godhead to bring divine light and love to those who need it, and as I walk past the candle during my day I remember the people and places in my heart, and lament the things they are facing, living through, surviving. But a little bit at time. Allowing myself to feel it, a little bit at a time. And be with them, a little bit at a time. And asking for more of God, a little bit at a time.

I know that this is only possible for someone not in the centre of the storm. I recognise that big difference.

But that is where I am and that is my possible. And from this place I am finding little things coming to mind that I can do practically to show and share kindness. A little bit at a time.

I am moving away from impotence, no longer paralysed by helplessness, and finding my way back to knowing and sharing God’s kindness.

So.

Dear you.

If this finds you overwhelmed, swamped by the ‘so much’ that surrounds you, I pray you can release yourself from the impossible. And find your possible. And your possible will bring kindness to your own heart, and release you to find kindnesses you can share with others.

A little bit at a time, precious one.
A little bit at a time.

Post navigation

“I wanna be in the room where it happens…”

2 thoughts on “Finding kindness by Doing the Possible”

  1. Rachel says:
    14 November 2023 at 10:43 am

    So important to say and beautifully put – reading so many threads at the moment saying the same thing and the need for space, for kindness, for doing the little we can. Love the idea of the candle ?️❤️?

    Reply
  2. Anne Mary Stubenbord says:
    17 November 2023 at 10:35 am

    Really lovely Sarah and so helpful. I love the idea of a candle too. So many are experiencing these feelings right now. Thanks so much

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

About This Site

Welcome to Faith in the Unfolding. Please take some time to look around. You’re so welcome. You can find out about me, read some testimonials, sample some blogs, and browse the shop. All will help you get a flavour of this ministry which offers the chance to retreat and meet with God in the unfolding of life.

You are welcome to get in touch if you want to find out more.

If you need a pause from life and a chance to regather yourself at His feet then here are some ways that I am available to help –

  • Why not sign up for the next online retreat?
  • Browse the blogs for a chance to reflect and be inspired.
  • Get in touch to talk about me hosting a retreat or reflective evening for your fellowship group or church.
  • Purchase an e-book of the retreat materials so you can work through things in your own time.

Things that are coming, but not quite yet, are live retreat days where we can spend some time in spacious reflection, and enjoy some guided creative activities to help bed in our thoughts and focus us on Him.

A gift shop with faith inspired, life affirming cards and canvases.

So do swing by another time.

Contact Me

Address
The Rectory
The Common
Mulbarton
Norwich
NR14 8JS

Email
sarahpmiller@googlemail.com

© 2020 Faith in the Unfolding ~ | Sarah Miller