There are a lot of good things I could be doing out in my community.

But I’m scared.

What if I fail? What if I have to hang around strange people? What if I say the wrong thing?

I think a lot of people are like me. They’d like to make a difference in the world. But fear holds them back.

Consider this:

Back in the early 18th century, a woman named Elizabeth Fry had always felt a calling to minister to the sick and the poor. In fact, she had helped establish a school for nursing.

But she married early and had eleven children. In her thirties, the call she’d felt earlier returned. Since she was well-to-do, she had the resources to visit women prisoners at London’s notorious Newgate Prison.

She brought food and medical supplies and taught the prisoners basic hygiene, sewing and quilting. She also taught the Bible and intervened for women who were on death row.

She was so successful in helping to civilize some of the more rowdy prisoners that soon sheriffs and mayors of nearby towns began to visit Newgate to see if they could institute some of Fry’s reforms.

Fry wasn’t a pastor or theologian or even a great Bible teacher.

She was simply a woman who responded in obedience to God’s call to reach out to women who desperately needed her.

Wow. What a woman.

Do you ever feel an inner nudge to do something positive in your community?

Is it God’s nudging?

“Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing, some people have entertained angels with knowing. Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”(Heb. 13: 1-3 NIV Bible)