One person can make a difference

I like inspirational stories. They inspire me. I guess that is what they are intended to do but I long to be an inspirational story someday and I think that watching the real ones really gets to me.

What I begin to realize is that I actually may be an inspirational story to someone and I do not even know it. Watch this and realize that making a difference happens one person at a time. Boom.

This is what makes "good" movies great and what makes an "average" novel superior. The idea that one person can inspire change, momentum, a movement or a ground swell is the idea that YOU could be that catalyst.

Think about it – Spartacus, Troy, Gladiator, Invictus. Great movies that revolve around a key character motivating legions or teams to act. Lord of the Rings and the humility of Frodo Baggins changed the course of Middle Earth. John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan – all people that were wildly popular regardless of your political preferences and changed the course of the known world through their leadership.

But what about you? What about me? What can we do to make a difference in this world. Well, it starts with a commitment to a cause and then, secondly, by choosing to act. Choosing to do it even if all the details are not final, even if the outcome is not certain, even if failure is too real of an option but by not acting you KNOW you are doing wrong.

Does it have to have a huge impact? No – as long as it has an impact it will be huge in the one person that it impacts. YOU can make a difference – read about this man that did with almost no budget – Click Here.

It's Time to Act. Whom will you serve? Whom will you obey? When will you take the chance? For me it is Jesus Christ and NOW! Will you join me?

My Field Trip this Week

I know that I do not write often so if no one reads this – I will live on still!

On Monday, January 3, Jay Bell, a friend of mine in ministry in Winona Lake, and I went to lunch together and then to visit a new local Sikh temple. What? A LOCAL Sikh Temple? Wait a minute…. What's a "Sikh" Temple?

I know… I had all of those same questions so here are a couple of places to find out more about what in the world this is. (www.sikh.org and www.gurunanakdarbarsahib.com ) First, Sikh (said "seek") is a religion that has some very unique beliefs (they worship a "Holy Book" and treat it as though it is alive physically). Second, when I say local I mean that is less than six miles from our church located on Day road just west of Bittersweet (12800 Day Road, Mishawaka, IN 46544). Third, we went in and spoke with the priest that leads this congregation of thirty families in our area. He was dressed in traditional garb with a turban, the appropriate metal wrist band and a long beard. You can search out the "articles of the Sikh faith" and learn more.

The Sikh faith seems to be a combination of the monotheism and Hinduism and is the 5^th largest world religion today. There is a Sikh temple in Merrillville, Fort Wayne, Kalamazoo and Chicago. Now there is one that is almost complete, after a $1,000,000 renovation, here in Michiana. Jay and I were invited from the entry hall into the main temple worship area and were allowed to see their holy book. We were even invited to come back this Sunday to worship with them.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because they will arrange a "field trip" for up to 30 of us to come and hear about the Sikh religion and to ask questions that we may want to know about their religion. Let me give you ten great reason why this is a great thing for us to do.

1. It's one thing to listen to a lecture on world religions, it's quite another to be able to ask questions of one who practices the religion.
   
2. It's one thing to try to wade through a world religion textbook, it's quite another to talk to a devotee in person.
   
3. It's one thing to study the "official" or "orthodox" version of a world religion, it's quite another to experience it at the popular level.
   
4. It's one thing to read in the Bible "Love your neighbor," it's quite another to practice love to those who hold to such vast religious differences.
   
5. It's one thing to try to strike up an initial conversation with an adherent of one of the world religions, it's quite another to say, "I've visited your place of worship (temple, center, mosque), can we talk?"
   
6. It's one thing to read the statistics about the number of adherents in a world religion, it's quite another to engage them personally.
   
7. It's one thing to read about idolatry in the Bible (like Isa. 44: 9-20 or Psalm 115:1-8), it's quite another to see it up close in person.
   
8. It's one thing to visit a religious establishment while on an overseas short-term missions trip, it's quite another to be able to drive to one. No plane fare necessary! No U.S. passport necessary! No inoculation shots necessary!
   
9. It's one thing to hear about the number of unreached people groups "over there" (41% of the 16,000 nations), it's quite another to meet them here.
   
10. It's one thing to know they are lost in their darkness, it's quite another to walk into their lives as light.
    

Are you in?

Little Nuggets to Ponder

I have recently been hearing these thought provoking little sayings or bits of knowledge that I have written down to consider. Let me share them with you and then you can think about them, too.

Regarding LOVE:

Action changes our thinking.

Motion results in emotion.

I found this to be an interesting bit of truth. We say that love is an action not an emotion. So if we do not have a love in our heart for someone than what do we do to change that? Do we just keep on "not loving" them? Or do we do something to change our thinking? I was challenged to action – to begin to say loving and kind things and do loving, selfless acts for someone that I do not love. If I do, I think that it may begin to change my thinking toward them. By doing this – it takes my eyes off of myself and forces me to look at others and see intentional ways to love or be loving toward them. When I do – I have to begin thinking about them and just by the act of thinking about them it will change how I think.

The second phrase above makes me realize that by the simple phrase "not loving someone" – I am trying to make hate sound less bad. If there is an absence of love then the options are limited as to what fills that void. If I just don't care – is that acceptable in the eyes of God? If I don't care, do I hate? I feel like - If I am not willing to love someone then I am disobedient to God. If I am not willing to love someone than that void must be filled with some feeling – it really can't just be apathy, can it?

Motion – moving in a direction away from something and toward something else. There has to be a goal. There has to be something that we move toward. LOVE – not the emotion – but the manner of life. Choosing to move in the direction of love says that I am going to act out lovingly toward those around me – regardless of the emotion involved and the feelings.

What did Jesus say?

Luke 6:27-36

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, {28} bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. {29} If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. {30} Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. {31} Do to others as you would have them do to you. {32} "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. {33} And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. {34} And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. {35} But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. {36} Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Matthew 5:44

"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Action?

Pray for them – ask God to give you a love for those you do not love.

Be kind to them – look for ways.

Treat them how you would treat those that you easily love.

Do it with no expectation in return except to see your thinking changed and your emotions replaced with the "motion of love". Eventually the emotional connection will follow.