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Women and children among Syrian refugees striking at the platform of Budapest Keleti railway station. Refugee crisis. Budapest, Hungary, Central Europe, 4 September 2015.

Women and children among Syrian refugees striking at the platform of Budapest Keleti railway station. Refugee crisis. Budapest, Hungary, Central Europe, 4 September 2015.

Yesterday, a picture, a crisis, and some rambling.

The Syrian refugee crisis dominates headlines and challenges our hearts, even our very souls.

Tonight, how to respond.

I do not need to create a specific blog post organizing a bunch of information.

Ann Voskamp has organized a beautiful action plan for individual believers here. I am committed to do one of the five and I encourage you to do so as well.

Let me add two very important things we can do.

Pray

Yes, as you see the faces on T.V., listen to the reports, and follow the governments responding – pray.

Not “Oh dear Jesus bless those people” before I pound my triple bacon cheeseburger prayers.

Instead try “Lord, my soul is desperate. These people suffer evil I can’t imagine, take risks I can’t imagine, facing circumstances and living conditions I can’t imagine. Their only hope, Lord, lies in you. Help. I’m helpless.”

Pray: “Lord, I’ve felt grief in my life. But I can’t stomach leaving home, losing family, giving up on property and maybe even life just for the chance at something better, or safer elsewhere. Help those doing what I’m not sure I could.”

Praying these types of prayers shapes and forms us we force ourselves to trust in His character and sovereignty over and above any human explanation for the suffering of these people.

Educate Yourself

Researching the crisis, individual stories, and the terror of ISIS will help you keep in touch with matters much more weighty than the AGT finals or the latest line of Apple products.

Knowing the crisis in our minds also protects our perspectives from our emotions, which can betray us. The quick access to information presents a huge benefit as we seek to form a balanced understanding of world events such as this.

Think. Do you care about crises such as this? Why or why not? Go ahead, answer honestly, I’m not listening. Neither is anyone else.

Act. I’ll let the actions points suggested here and in Voskamp’s summary suffice.