'Twas dark until again He spake,

'Tis so with man, he is all night,

At first, till God doth give him light."

- John Bunyan

"There are two dangers we face when we watch the news. The first is that we feel ourselves responsible to do something about all that we now know. We take on the role of saviour and try to sort out the world. And because we cannot do everything we end feeling guilty. We need to trust God. He is the saviour and he is Lord. We can entrust the world to him through prayer.

But the second danger is passivity and modern media increasingly push us in this direction. We sit there being entertained, watching the news as if it were a disaster movie or crime show. Or maybe we tweet our sympathies and then go back to the problem of which ice cream flavour to chose. We cannot do everything, but we can do something."

- Tim Chester

1) if its members love and talk positively about the city/neighborhood,

2) if they speak in language that is not filled with pious tribal or technical terms and phrases, nor disdainful and embattled language,

3) if in their Bible study they apply the gospel to the core concerns and stories of the people of the culture,

4) if they are obviously interested in and engaged with the literature and art and thought of the surrounding culture and can discuss it both appreciatively and yet critically,

5) if they exhibit deep concern for the poor and generosity with their money and purity and respect with regard to the opposite sex, and show humility toward people of other races and cultures,

6) they do not bash other Christians and churches --

then seekers and non-believing people from the city:

A) will be invited and

B) will come and will stay as they explore spiritual issues.

If these marks are not there it will only be able to include believers or traditional, 'Christianized' people."

-- Tim Keller, The Missional Church, June 2001

Ed Welch has a good post on seeking advice when dealing with life's situations:

Great post by Josh Reich, Pastor of Revolution Church (Tucson, AZ):

One of the reasons many people don’t live on mission as a follower of Jesus is time. Every Christian would agree, or should agree, that we are called to live on mission. That we are to reach the planet and disciple all people. Yet, most studies show that only 2% of Christians share their faith and live on mission.

Why? We have lost the idea of doing everyday, ordinary things with gospel intentionality. We see and often make living on mission an extra thing we do on top of everything else we do.

Here are some great questions taken from Missional Community Life by Tim Chester to think through how to do everyday, ordinary things with gospel intentionality and to live on mission in all of life:

List all the activities – including the mundane – that make up your normal:

1. Daily routine (for example, travelling to work, eating meals, chores, walking the dog, playing with the children).
2. Weekly routine (for example, grocery shopping, watching favorite TV programs, getting exercise).
3. Monthly routine (for example, gardening, getting a haircut, going to the cinema).

For each activity, ask whether you could add a:

1. Community component – involving another member of your faith community.
2. Missional component – involving an unbeliever.
3. Gospel component – talking about Jesus.

http://gospeldrivenchurch.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-letter-to-ray-ortlund-jr.html

If not very often then usually one of two things (or both) are probably going on in your life. 

1) You are not living life with others in such a way that you have allowed them close enough to you to see your sin or 2) you have failed to fully recognize and acknowledge the indwelling sin in your life. 

One is a community problem and the other is a pride problem.  Both are solved by the Gospel.  The Gospel says that I am free and accepted in Christ so I don't have to wall myself off from others because of fear of rejection.  The Gospel also says that my sin runs very very deep.  So deep in fact that it took God himself sacrificing himself for me on a Roman cross to bear the wrath that I deserve.  If this doesn't crush my pride then I probably have not understood it. 

The Christian life assumes that I am a sinner.  It also assumes that I will acknowledge my sin and live in close community with other believers.   If these assumptions are embraced then verbally asking forgiveness will be normative in our lives.  I am praying that it becomes more so in my life and yours." - Zach Nielsen