Practicing Empathy When the California Fires Don’t Affect Me

East Tennessee is home; it’s where my husband and I settled after moving all around the country. It’s where I had my first baby. The Appalachian mountains settle my nerves and soothe my soul. The sweet tea and southern twang on the tongues of the locals are greater than charming. They’re endearing and warm. East Tennessee is my home. 

When last yr’s Appalachian flooding directly impacted my town, after we lost a young man in my community who was only attempting to help others, it was felt. The principal bridge my family takes into town remains to be out and won’t be rebuilt until this summer. Each day, I’m reminded of loss, of my church family and shut friends who lost the whole lot from their power to their farming sheds to their entire homes.

I recall feeling frustrated with America, wondering why it seemed so few people checked on us, why little help—from family and friends to social media influencers and even the federal government—was offered. 

They don’t care that we’re suffering since it doesn’t directly impact their lives, I assumed. And man, if I didn’t adopt the identical apathetic shrug of my shoulders once I saw Los Angeles, California engulfed in flames. 

My son and I are battling a nasty combo of RSV and head colds. My kitchen is totally gutted for renovations. I actually have my very own drama occurring. 

That’s what their firemen are for, right?

The local pastors needs to be stepping up, right?

Hollywood should finally cough up a few of their multi-millions and spread the wealth, right?

Clearly, I’m all for empathy as long as it advantages my life. Such are the selfish ways of all of us if we’re honest. So how will we practice empathy when the California fires don’t directly affect us? When it isn’t our family members running for his or her lives, our homes turned to ash, and our favourite coffee shops and restaurants disintegrated?

1. Pivot Your Prayer Routine

It’s too easy for prayers to grow to be robotic, a pattern of platitudes to examine off our list so we are able to get on with controlling our days in all of the ways we told God we might give up to His sovereignty. But if we wish to get serious about being empathetic for complete strangers, we must pivot our prayer routine. Our words have to be intentional and shift away from a to-do list for God and toward the request that He grant us wisdom for a way we are able to best serve from where we’re.

Perhaps it’s an unpopular opinion, but I think our prayer life has never solely been about us. It’s centered on us spending enough time with God in a posture of humility that we grow to be more like Him. Thus our prayer life shapes us into people who find themselves willing to look for methods to assist others, even when we do not personally know them or our time, efforts, and donations won’t ever be returned in Job’s ten-fold fashion (Job 42:10-16). 

2. Recognize Your Responsibility

Consider the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. The Good Samaritan had nothing to achieve by helping the robbed man left for dead. But when he got here across his path, he was left with a straightforward alternative: to assist or not. Between network news channels, the web, and countless social media platforms, we—prefer it or not—have come across the trail of California’s destruction and are left with the identical alternative: to assist or not. 

Remember, nobody is demanding that you just suit up in a fireman’s gear and stampede into the billowing smoke. I doubt anyone is asking you to sponsor helicopters to evacuate residents. However, I guarantee you on-the-ground organizations are begging for anything from bottled water for firemen to financial donations to accommodate and support those that have lost the whole lot, and if some have lost the whole lot, we are able to surrender something. 

Consider easy ways you may save funds to show into donations. Cut that Friday morning Starbucks run—Lord knows there is no need spending seven dollars on a drink loaded with processed sugar anyway. What if those latest tennis shoes for the gym can wait one other month? Use that pivoted prayer time to ask God for specific ways you may lower your expenses to share with those in California. 

After all, God is not slow to point out us how we might help others. We are simply slow in volunteering for Him to make use of us.

3. Give Gratitude a Go

Humans are survivors. Biology points to the ways God designed our bodies to fight to maintain us alive and well. We aren’t any different on a psychological level in the case of preserving our funds and stability. We want what’s predictable and protected for us and our families. That’s not necessarily a foul thing; God designed our bodies to live and breathe and withstand hard times. But if we never practice gratitude, we cannot recognize our abundance and can stay stuck in survival mode. We will gravitate towards patterns of hoarding and self-protection in any respect costs. 

Yet, if we take a number of moments throughout the day to count easy blessings, we’ll recognize how protected and secure we’re—not only physically but spiritually in Christ. This freedom grants us headspace and heartspace to freely give away what we now have because we all know, in Christ, we truly lack no good thing. Psalm 32:9-10 beautifully confirms this concept by sharing, “There isn’t any need to those that fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those that seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.”

I’ll be the primary to confess that life is way easier lived as an ostrich, your head stuck within the sand, only aware of your present needs. But I’ll remind you that what’s protected often doesn’t regular the soul. Predictability and selfishness rarely leave the guts satisfied. That’s because we were made for greater than monotony. Routine was never meant to rule us. God is not a boring God. He often is not protected, but He’s steadfast, and we’re perpetually secure in fulfilling our destiny as long as we walk in His footsteps. 

I encourage you, together with myself, to get slightly uncomfortable as you shift your prayer routine, recognize the responsibility you’ve got as a Christ follower, and provides gratitude an honest, eye-opening go. Realize that we frequently regret staying on the sidelines, but nobody regrets stepping up and doing something that matters. 

If you are searching for specific organizations already making headway in California, here’s a fast list to start:

Red Cross
Salvation Army
World Central Kitchen
Airbnb
CAL FIRE Benevolent Foundation

Related: Actor Stelio Savante Issues ‘Call to Prayer’ for Los Angeles in Wake of Fires: ‘It’s Been Devastating’  

Actor Stelio Savante is a Los Angeles resident known for such movies as Pursuit of Freedom, Infidel, Nefarious, and the upcoming movie Between Borders (Jan. 26). On Thursday, the Los Angeles wildfires were six miles from his house—and getting closer. The shortage of firefighters and water, he said, has been “staggering.” Savante, a Christian, is issuing a “call to prayer” and is himself praying that “God will provide a chance for miracles and testimony.” You can find Crosswalk Talk on LifeAudio.com, or subscribe on Apple or Spotify so that you never miss an interview that may make sure to encourage your faith.

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Apu Gomes/Stringer

Peyton Garland is an writer and Tennessee farm mama sharing her heart on OCD, church trauma, and failed mom moments. Follow her on Instagram @peytonmgarland and take a look at her latest book, Tired, Hungry, & Kinda Faithful, to find Jesus’ hope in life’s simplest moments.