Do what you can

This week's Gospel (Luke 16:1-13) gives us a kind of answer: Start with the small stuff.

Jesus told this story: "A man heard his servant was wasting his money and told the man he would lose his job. `What will I do?' the servant worried. He thought that everyone would help him if he helped them, so he called people who owed his master money. `What do you owe?' he asked, and then told them, `Now you only owe half.' The master praised his servant for being smart. Like that servant," Jesus finished, "you won't be trusted with big things like going to heaven if you can't be trusted with small things like money now."

That must have been how the man in the Gospel story felt at first. He thought he was going to lose his job, and he didn't know how to change that. What could he do?

If you've seen the news lately, you know that our government is doing the big stuff -- finding the enemies who attacked us. You just need to worry about small stuff -- showing the people you love that you care about them, going to school as usual and praying for everyone who's been hurt.

That's what the man in Jesus' story did. Instead of worrying about what would happen with his job, he concentrated on helping the people who owed his master money. In the end, that man was rewarded by keeping his job after all.

You'll get a reward, too: For "doing your job" as a kid and praying for other people at this terrible time, you'll help the adults around you feel better, too -- and that makes our country strong. And like Jesus said, God pays attention to people who do that!

PRAYER FOR THE WEEK: Jesus, I pray for all the people who are hurting right now. Please help us all. Amen!