Take action

Saturday morning lying in bed scrolling through Instagram and I saw that Christian musician Sean Feucht was running for Congress. I love this! Now before y’all go getting on your high horse and telling me my opinion is right or wrong, please know this, I know and understand little to nothing about American politics. So then you might say don’t write about stuff you don’t know about.  Hear me out for a minute, this is not about politics for me. I don’t know the reasons that lead to Sean’s decision to run for Congress. But I imagine it was something to do with seeing a problem and instead of just standing by annoyed, protesting and complaining, he has taken action to try and change the problem.

Oh, how quick I am to jump on the complaint wagon and sit there going round in circles, moaning or complaining or even judging others but doing absolutely nothing to change the situation.

Believing that something is wrong is not an action, getting your closest friends together over coffee to talk about what is wrong is not an action, sharing a Facebook post about what offends you is not an action.

I don’t know anywhere in the Bible Jesus gathers the disciples round to have a good gossip about how bad those aul Pharisees behaved. He didn’t plan mass protest or riots, he didn’t make a poster and put them up all around the town. What did he do? He led by example. He prayed. He followed his calling, he lived out what he preached, he loved the unloved, he healed the sick. He stepped into God’s plan and lived it out.

I can share a hundred social media posts about love, but they won’t mean anything if I’m going into work and snapping the face off my colleagues.

I can hate that there are homeless people on my streets, but what good would that be if I keep walking past them and I’m not willing to stop for a minute and talk to them and share a bit of love. Or buy a coffee, or donate to an active homeless charity.

I can hate that the suicide rate is at an all-time high but not act by loving the people God has placed around me and not be willing to show compassion and love to those suffering from mental health problems.

There is no point me complaining that the minds of today’s youth are corrupted with sex and violence through television and media and then still sit, night in night out, watching the shows and reading the magazines that promote it.

I can tell the world I’m a Christian, I can go to every church service, serve at every event, hand out leaflets in the street, preach to people I meet, but it will not make a button of difference if I don’t live it out.

My pastor could be the greatest preacher in the world, but it doesn’t mean that it’s his sole responsibility to deliver a message on a Sunday that will lead people to Christ. The church is the body of Christ; we all have to work together to show people the heart of Jesus.

Through our actions, not our mouth!

If God gave you a voice, use it.  If he gave you a song, sing it.  If he gave you words, write it.  But do it to bring glory to God.

Don’t use the gifts God has given you to promote and encourage evil, partner with hatred and cause division in your community.

“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, Doesn’t have a swelled head, Doesn’t force itself on others, Isn’t always “me first,” Doesn’t fly off the handle, Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, Doesn’t revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be cancelled. If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13:1-10‬ ‭MSG‬‬