Praying for Workers

36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
~Matthew 9: 36 - 37

What does it mean to look harassed and helpless? What did it look like in the time of Jesus?

I imagine the distressed, frantic look of the people. Harassed by life; continually bombarded by well-placed comments and teachings about the places they didn't measure up.

Whether the feelings are visible or not, are we very far from this in today's world? What is so different? Seems that if we boil it down to the essentials-people are still being harassed by the world-assaulted by the media, by advertising, by competitive co-workers.... Perhaps the saddest thing is our lack of community. At least in the time of Jesus, people were willing to feel distress together-they were willing to go as a crowd-as a community to search out healing.

We are so disconnected, we sit in a plush couch, twenty feet from an unknown neighbor, in a house whose cost would feed a family for years, and receive comfort from an infomercial salesperson who seems to understand what we need. What happened to us? Is progress really worth it? We know it isn't going away, and yet our laziness forces the work on less and less people relative to the job set before us.

Simple request. Ask for workers. Perhaps I'm one of those workers, perhaps my neighbor is. When did I last spent time asking for them? Are we asking for workers from the right source? Self-help and Oprah are just a bit different than the "...God of the harvest..."