Certainly, pray for changed circumstances. But do not resign yourself to prayer alone when God is expecting you to carry His covenant into those circumstances.

Sure, you live in a place and time that surpass your understanding and abilities, but they do not surpass God.

Your circumstance may be God’s way to prepare you for His greater purpose. Use this time and place, this circumstance, to prepare your character so you are ready for that moment to come when God calls on you.

Focus on a vital few core values and pursue those virtues with all you are, all you have, all you do. Through discipline in these vital few, you will be prepared to land the aircraft in the Hudson River, to free a nation from apartheid, to lead a people across the river into the Promised Land, or perhaps just befriend a neighbor or raise a child who will.

That’s what Nelson Mandela did. We can, too.