Need is all around you. There are millions of ways you could put significant effort into trying to help, and this can be overwhelming. It can cause you to freeze or throw up your hands and do nothing because you feel like you can’t fix it all.
 
And you're right: you can’t fix it all.

Thankfully, that isn’t what the needs all around you are trying to tell you. The fact that your existence includes coming face to face with real needs is not meant to make you feel powerless. It’s meant to help you know you’re being called - not called to do or fix or even understand everything that’s going on, but called to figure out what specific part you play in the solution.

Because in the same way that need is all around you, need is also in you. There are things you can’t do for yourself, and it takes an army of others doing their specific tasks to help you. Whether they recognize it or not, your needs provide those people a path to purpose. Their engagement in community helps you, and it enables and empowers you to engage in that same community, bringing to light those things that you can do.

You can’t do everything. You can do some things. Many things, probably. But how do you find what things you were meant to do? How do you figure out in what ways you can make specific and beneficial contributions to the world around you?

Illume wants to help.

First, you need to know about the various options that exist. Illume partners with nonprofits of all kinds, exploring and explaining their actions and passions so that everyone who engages in Spotlights will have the chance to learn about the unique needs that surround them. We do this knowing that, while not everyone will resonate with every cause, someone will. Over time, you’ll find your niche, your cause, and pour yourself into making a difference through it.

But even if it’s hard to figure out (we all tend to think we’re less capable that we really are), Illume doesn’t ask you to answer the questions of purpose and service on your own. Your Spotlight Community, as they get to know you, will notice what you're passionate about. They’ll be there to help you identify where you might invest yourself. They'll be there to help redirect you when it turns out you're better suited for something else and to celebrate with you when you’re able to make the difference you hoped to make.

Illume wants this for you, and more importantly, Illume prioritizes this for you. You (all of us!) need ways to share yourself, invest yourself, and exhaust yourself in loving and caring for the people and world around you. A life without this opportunity is not only empty and unsatisfying--it's stagnate. We grow individually, relationally, and spiritually when we sacrificially serve. This is Illume's Spotlight vision - to utilize community service to create a path to purposeful connection.

To consider this further, you might enjoy the book God at Work by Gene Edward Vieth, Jr.