Right Where We Are

I don’t feel like I’m doing enough . . .

I lamented to my husband one evening. Our children had gone to bed, and we were unwinding after busy work days and attempting to get some quiet time before the baby woke up again. I had been scrolling through Instagram, marveling at the commitment, dedication, and service I was seeing on my feed. One friend was organizing another service project to Jamaica to do free dentistry. Another friend had just finished at a rally where she passionately advocated and spoke with her elected officials. Someone else just announced pre-orders for her next book while also being an active online Catholic voice.

I was asking myself if I was doing enough to lift up the Kingdom, so to speak. Am I advocating enough for the voiceless among us? Am I active enough at my parish? Am I available for service projects or do I spend enough time calling my representatives? Am I doing enough . . . ? Am I enough?

But in his simple and poignant way, he sighed exasperatedly, “Samantha, you serve your community and your family every single day. That IS enough.”

While I was comparing myself to what others were doing, I forgot that I am doing what I can right where I am. I serve the community by treating the immigrant families of my clinic. I serve my family when I love them and take care of them and nurture them. The Lord commands that “whatever town you enter, . . . cure the sick in it and say to them ‘the kingdom of God is at hand’” (Luke 10:8-9).

He is telling us to love and serve—right where we are.

Be present and loving—right where we are.

I am doing what I can right where I am.Click to tweet

Trust His grace is enough, and take a listen to it sung out here.

Dr. Samantha Aguinaldo-Wetterholm is a wife to Paul, mom to three little ones, and practices dentistry at a public health community center for low income families in the Bay Area, California. She (unashamedly) thinks ice cream is its own food group, loves anything Harry Potter, does not leave the house without wearing sparkly earrings, and is an enthusiastic proponent of the Oxford comma. She is a contributing author to our children's devotional prayer book, Rise Up. Find out more about her here.