Not Much I Can Do

By Meagan Briggs (WITHIN Member)

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard the hated words, “There’s not much I can do.”

In fact, I’d heard it so many times in one salon chair after another, I expected it, knowing it would be accompanied with a slight wince and eyebrows raised in sympathy.

Hair I can get over. It’s the other times in life when I hear those words—whether from doctors, advisors, or the loved ones I go to when my needs are more than I can handle myself—that I’m most tempted to lose hope.

There was a time I might have despaired if every source I turned to echoed or implied, “Sorry, I can’t help,” “Better luck next time,” “Keep looking.” But now when I hear those words, I find myself turning sooner, faster, and more willingly to God. It’s an intentional redirecting of my hope from the ashes of earthly care to the One who says, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27 NIV)

Sometimes it’s not until everyone we know says, “There’s not much I can do” that we turn to God and He can finally tackle the situation on our behalf. Sometimes He answers those prayers the way we hope. Sometimes, He doesn’t. Either way, He always heals some part of ourselves that need more of Him.

The thorns in my flesh—whether big or small—may always be there, but since when is my hope for this brief life reliant on happiness, ease, or others’ ability to help? Because God will never say, “There’s only so much I can do,” my hope, regardless of outcome or circumstance, is in the One for Whom nothing is too hard.