What Is the Best Way to Help Others When You Feel Powerless Against So Much Suffering?

This question comes from a good heart, and I have lived inside it my entire life. When you see the scale of human suffering—poverty, disease, injustice, abandonment—it is natural to feel overwhelmed and small. But this feeling, if understood rightly, is the beginning of true compassion.

You do not need to solve all suffering. You cannot cure the world's poverty. You cannot save everyone. But you can save one. You can love one person completely. And that one person will know that their life mattered.

When I opened our home for the dying in Calcutta, I was not thinking about all the dying people I could not help. I was thinking about the next person brought to our door. I would wash that person's wounds, hold their hand, ensure they died knowing they were loved. That was enough. That was everything.

Your powerlessness is not a barrier to service. It is an invitation to humility. When you accept that you cannot fix everything, you become free to truly help. You are no longer burdened by the impossible. You are liberated to focus on the possible—the one person in front of you.

Do not let the magnitude of suffering paralyze you. This is the work of despair, not love. Love says: I cannot do everything, but I can do something, and I will do it with my whole heart.

Start small. Start now. Find one person who is forgotten. One elderly person who never gets visits. One child who sleeps on the street. One person dying alone. Commit to showing up for them. Show them they are seen. This is not a small thing. This is revolutionary.

You will feel your powerlessness, yes. But you will also experience the incredible power of presence, of faithfulness, of one human being saying to another: I see you. You matter. You are not alone. This power is real. It changes lives. It even changes the one who serves.