Kelly: This morning, the two of us were presented with an opportunity to possibly fill a need in our church that several of us feel has not been met. For quite some time now, it's been under the assumption that this need has been "taken care of" and that others are doing something about it. In other words, there really isn't a clear direction. Anyway, more on that later, but that's what's been going on. What inspired this tidbit of possibly new direction was this morning at church. In today's day and age, we are all circling in our own orbits of day after day life, wondering how we're going to live for ourselves. Seriously, it's true. Even I myself am guilty of it. But how often do we think about those around us? I know that even in my line of work, when I walk out the door my mind is wondering of how I'm going to spend my next few days off.
It's no secret that we love helping people. I've dabbled into different volunteer opportunities for a while, but after a short amount of time found it wasn't my niche or the other volunteers were often gossiping about things not getting done or were sometimes judgmental towards those who came in. I witnessed this while at a food bank as a volunteer, and removed myself from there because it was a place I felt I did not or should not be mixed into. Hard to show the love of God when the majority are acting in ways that are the complete opposite of such. I have been praying for a while to find ways to use my time off in other ways other than myself; tired of being selfish let's just say. And then this opportunity came up. I don't know what kind of fruit this will produce; hopefully good but again, all in God's will and in His perfect plan. The title of today's post is derived from the words of a song by Matthew West titled "Do Something." Listen to it if you want a good encouraging message and a reminder of our duty as Christians. It's up to us; nobody else is going to take care of it. If not us then who? If not now then when?
Holly: I read a status on Facebook a while back from a young mother, claiming that she hated every single thing about being a parent, yet she loved her child (I really wish I was making this up). Part of this rationale was that this person believed that we as humans were entitled to being selfish. I could not disagree with this more.
I might get some flack for this statement, but I believe it to be true, completely regardless of whether or not you are a Christian: Life is not about you. There. I said it. I think, as a Christian, or even as a decent human being, we ought to be seeking out ways to serve others, instead of attempting to fulfill our own desires. Guys, I am far from a pristine example of this. I still am learning, but it is only by the grace of God that I can keep trying. Something that struck me especially from the sermon today (which we've heard before) is that we waste so much time on trivial, meaningless things. We compartmentalize ourselves, turn ourselves into islands with our Netflix and our iPhones and we just completely miss the point. Again, Guilty. As. Charged. Things are just that....things. Things don't last. Period. One of my favorite passages of Scripture comes from 2 Corinthians 4: "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
As Kelly mentioned, we have an opportunity at our feet that, right now, we aren't sure of much. It's still in the planning stages, but we are praying for God's will and direction, confirmation that this is what He wants to do. He knows our hearts and our desires. At least for me, one of the goals is that we will reach out to those in need, that we will open our homes and our hearts, and that we will bring them to Jesus. That's the main goal: Jesus. Because I still think life isn't about us.
If not us, then who?
If not me and you right now, it's time for us to do something!
If not now, then when?
Will we see an end to all this pain?
It's not enough to do nothing. It's time for us to do something!
We are the salt of the earth, we are a city on a hill
We're never going to change the world by standing still
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