This morning, I watched the news with interest as Washington prepared to welcome Pope Benedict XVI on the south lawn of the Whitehouse. Though I'm not a Catholic, I found two things particularly interesting:

First, the unapologetic, refreshing, straight-shooting, non-politically correct speeches and music that comprised the program agenda. In his remarks, President Bush called the United States "a nation of prayer." The U.S. Marine Corps band performed the national anthem of the Holy See as well as "The Star-Spangled Banner," and soprano Kathleen Battle sang "The Lord's Prayer." The pope responded by praising the role of religion in the United States: "From the dawn of the republic, America's quest for freedom has been guided by the conviction that the principles governing political and social life are intimately linked to a moral order based on the dominion of God the creator."

Second, I was struck by the enthusiasm of the people attending. In our society, many would like for us to believe that Americans have turned away from religion, that faith is no longer important. But today, a record number of spectators showed up--more than 13,500 people--to observe the elaborate ceremony. And when the president spoke, he was interrupted by applause as he said, "In a world where some treat life as something to be debased and discarded, we need [the pope's] message that all human life is sacred and that each of us is willed."

Much of today's events kept me glued to the T.V. It was the girl, however, I saw interviewed by Fox news that impressed me most. The interviewer called the interviewee a "non-practicing Catholic." The reporter asked the young woman why she'd come to the event. She said, "I'm hoping to hear something, be moved by something that will turn me back to the church. I want that to happen."

I was reminded of the hunger that exists in our society, especially in our young people. They're looking for something real and alive and eternal and unchanging and something that will bring peace, joy, comfort, and guidance to their world where counterfeits fail.

But the presence of hunger doesn't automatically mean that food to satisfy that hunger is being provided. On the contrary, in a time when the world needs our witness the most, lots of the Christian world has compromised, allowed to be silenced, and blended into the background. I know I'm generalizing, but who have you and I impacted today? If the girl on Fox News worked or lived beside us, would she see in our lives and hear from our words enough to turn her to Jesus? Before Jesus went away, He charged you and me to take His message to people like this young woman, and when we don't, they find other things to fill in the vacuum.

Thinking of the searching girl, I understood Jesus' heart in Matthew 9:37-38 when He said, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but he laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest."

I believe that we should not only pray that laborers are sent, but that we should pray to become a faithful laborer to the harvest ourselves. The Great Commission was directed to us all in Matthew 28:19: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

The pope's visit has caused some controversy around providing sanctuary for illegal immigrants and priestly abuse. But his visit also highlighted the hunger in people all around us for spiritual things. You and I have the only true Light inside us, and Jesus charged us to use it to light a dark world.

Keep your eyes open for those around you who need Jesus. Then go after them in your prayers and your actions and your words. Let them find in you the only thing that will truly satisfy. Jesus called it "living water" in John 4 to the woman whose face He saw.

See their faces. Hear their words. Feed their hunger with the living water. That's what Jesus told us to do. Let's get busy doing it!