I've been reading a book by Francis Chan, one of today's most influential preachers. In one chapter, he recounts a testimony from a Christian man who lived in Germany during the Holocaust, and then asks a chilling question for his readers to consider.

Here's the excerpt:

We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we were trying to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it? A railroad track ran behind our small church, and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and the wheels coming over the tracks. We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by. We realized it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars.

Week after week, the whistle would blow. We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp. Their screams tormented us. We knew the time the train was coming. And when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. By the time the train passed our church, we were singing at the top of our voices. If we heard the screams, we were singing more loudly. And soon we could hear them no more.

Although years have passed, I still hear the train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me. Forgive all of us who call themselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.

Francis:

It's easy to be judgmental when you hear that story. It is sickening that Christians could hear their cries and drown them out by singing hymns. But what would you have done? Look at the pattern of your life. Would you really have gone against the norm and done something? If everyone else was singing, wouldn't you have just sung along?

-"You and Me Forever," by Francis and Lisa Chan. (Book and Audiobook available online and through the app store.)

That passage wrecked me. I'd like to believe that I'm the kind of person who wouldn't have sung hymns to drown out another person's pain, just because I myself felt helpless. But when I really think about it, I definitely would have wrestled with the thought, "What can I even do to help?"

If we're talking about the Holocaust, I can't imagine myself running outside my house and telling the Nazis to stop what they were doing and release the Jews.

I'm not Moses.

I'd be shot and killed.

It would have been hopeless.

However, when it all comes down to it, that hopelessness is what keeps us stuck in a state of not doing anything today.

Like the Christian man said, "We heard stories of what was happening to Jews, but we were trying to distance ourselves from it because what could we do to stop it?"

In light of that question, I want to specifically direct this article to my fellow Christians.

Today, it's remarkably easy to do the same thing. We can't log onto social media without hearing something regarding the tragedies happening in the world. Facebook, which once used to be a place where I could see what my friends are doing, is now a hub for endless heartbreaking news articles. There's almost no escaping it.

So really, we know exactly what's happening in the world. We can share article after article to spread awareness, but then what? The truth is, we are distanced from it because (for most of us) it is not happening directly to us.

It is happening around us, but not to us.

Simultaneously, we may be distanced because we're not actively doing something to stop it.

I WILL share articles and I WILL write whatever I can to bring awareness over ignorance, but lately I've been so convicted of the reality that God literally calls us to do more than that.

God's message throughout the Bible is to serve the poor and love the needy. He emphasizes the beauty and necessity of going out of our way to serve Jesus.

I was struck by Luke 6:46 when Jesus asks, "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?" Then in verse 49, He says, "He who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great."

Our calling as Christians does not stop at accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior and trying to spread the gospel. Our calling from Jesus is literally to love and help those in need, to walk as a living example of the gospel. James 1:27 says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress." When we look closer, it means that this is truly the standard for Christianity.

He calls us to be active, "to look after." His focus is on the helpless, those who have experienced loss and oppression.

So how can we hear this, and still choose to do nothing?

I'm not here to tell you what the overall answer or solution is. I'm only here to say that there's more that can, and needs to be done. Not only because it's the right thing to do, but because it is literally God's calling for His chosen people.

It's time that we stop sitting around asking God why He's not doing anything, and instead ask ourselves why we are not doing anything.

In another book I'm reading called "Pursuing Justice" by Ken Wytsma, he speaks of a 1933 radio address by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German theologian and pastor who was killed by the Nazis. Wystma writes that he "offered three possible stances for Christians to address systemic or state-sponsored injustice: speak truth to and criticize the state; give aid to victims of the state, and directly engage the unjust system...' not just to bandage victims under the wheel, but to put a spoke in the wheel itself.'"

Wytsma says, "In this I see a spectrum of justice, moving from dialogue to works of compassion and mercy to actively attacking unjust structures. All are part of justice, and all can and should be done."

So let me paraphrase what we can do:

1. Engage in DIALOGUE (not debates, but dialogues where you truly listen, challenge, and understand all sides).

2. Actually engage in WORKS OF COMPASSION.

3. Actively ATTACK UNJUST STRUCTURES.

All of us are different, and we each hold passions for different areas of injustice: sex trafficking, the refugee crisis, the education system, the justice system, law enforcement, domestic abuse, orphans and the homeless. There are so many avenues to work through and in.

Remember that God calls us to die to ourselves. He calls us to pick up our cross. Together as believers, let's bear the burdens of those who need light more than anything in these times of crisis. We are the ones called to be that light.

My only encouragement is to do something. Anything. As long as you refuse to sit back and enjoy your own piece of comfort while someone else loses everything.