7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8 For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. 9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Have you heard? There are 2 ladies who are attempting to get toymaker Mattel to manufacture what they call a "Beautiful and Bald Barbie" doll. In fact, Facebook page was started a few days before Christmas. By Wednesday afternoon, the page had more than 16,000 fans. Their motivation - to raise awareness for children with cancer. There is now apparently a companion move to move Hasbro to manufacture a bald GI Joe toy!
Here are some ladies who are pursuing what I have to admit is a creative way to communicate a cause. There's a young lady from California who passed away recently, who had established a national campaign to help children with cancer - her name was Jessica Joy Rees, and her "Joy Jars" have become quite popular - she has over 116,000 followers on Facebook, and her jars have been used across the country. Her father, pastor Erik Rees said:
“For the last seven months, Jessie and I would make Joy Jars every Monday in the Joy Factory, aka, our garage, for the courageous kids around the country fighting cancer...I’d read the information we received from each child and she would make the jar just the way she felt fit.”
“Her wish was that she would send one to every kid fighting cancer, which is over 50,000 children today in hospitals. We ended last year with over 3,000 jars stuffed. I will miss making Joy Jars with Jessie, but I will make sure every kid gets their jar. I promise you sweat pea.”Jessie's funeral drew an overflow crowd at Saddleback Church.
These are examples of people with passion. And I believe God has placed certain passions, desires in our hearts, to fulfill His call and to make the lives of others better. That passion may be to fight cancer, like area basketball teams will be doing this weekend. It may be to help inner city young people have hope in the midst of difficult times - there's a nice piece in the Wall Street Journal today tracing the life and ministry of Danny Wuerffel, who has made a dramatic impact through Desire Street Ministries and played a role in establishing Common Ground Montgomery. The point of the article is that Danny is regarded as a role model to someone whose name is on the lips of millions of Americans these days - Tim Tebow. Here's a guy with passion - to play football well and bring glory to God, and to use his platform to share Christ, and his physical resources to build a hospital in the Philippines.
Many will be embracing service-related causes this weekend and Monday - in fact, Martin Luther King Day is regarded as a huge day of service - a "day on", not a "day off".
So what are you passionate about? And can God use that desire to bring honor to Him and hope to others? I thought about 4 helpful steps to embracing a cause with passion:
1 - Identify a cause about which you're passionate (Perhaps a crisis has provided a catalyst for wanting to bring change.)
2 - Pray about how God would have you fulfill that passion
3 - Develop a plan or strategy for addressing the cause
4 - Ask God how best to communicate the passion with others
Someone can't do everything, but everyone can do something.
When we think and act in accordance to our relationship with Christ, good things are bound to happen!
No comments:
Post a Comment