Impact

Tonight at Real Youth, we talked about how we can make an impact in our world. We talked about how important it is to meet people's immediate needs, and show that we care about them. We are called to love, and care about those in need, and in fact told that what we do for them we do for God (Matthew 25:40). I have been trying to get this point across for some time now, but somehow have had a tough time to get it to sink in. I think it is a result of the self-centered world we live in, and of which I am extremely guilty. I think that tonight it started to sink in that they could make a difference, and some kids really started to get excited about what they could do. In fact we began to develop some plans for how we as a group could make an impact both in our area and around the world. Our kids have been taught since they were little about taking Jesus to those who don't know Him, but I think we have not done a good job teaching them that there is way more to it than just sharing the gospel. It is kind of cool to see things finally start to click for some of them. There are two parts to sharing Jesus love (1. Love people/meet their needs, 2. Share with them about Jesus). In my mind, you can't have one w/o the other. I'm praying that some of the ideas we came up with will get them to start thinking about others instead of themselves. When that starts to happen, we will start to see more committed and more excited youth. It is now my job to be a leader by actually putting others ahead of myself, and find something that I am excited about giving my time/money/energy to. If you want to read a shorter sweeter version of what I am trying to say, my friend Jason just wrote about pretty much the same thing.