Recently, my wife and I helped staff a mission trip known as Wretch Con. In it, we helped serve Lawrence and the Greater Kansas City area. Over a very tiring and a bit stressful three days, something hit me that was stronger than anything has in a very long time.
The local church is not doing its job.
You see, we sent our youth kids, who were an average age of 13-16, into areas that were not safe and they excelled and formed a heart of service. We were handing out lunches to homeless people, we were hanging out with them, fellowshipping with them, and loving on them. But it was not us that were truly ministering to them, but reverse order.
By the end of the trip, God really showed me one thing in particular. Instead of sitting back and throwing money at the situation of homelessness, sex trafficking, or any other thing in the mission field, why don’t we do as Jesus calls for us to, and act? In Matthew, he calls for us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take care of the sick. But for the most of us, we throw money in the offering plate and hope that someone else will take care of it while we sit back and live our lives.
I firmly believe that we need to take the gifts that God has given us and give back. Time is the best thing we can offer in our community. For most of us, our needs our met, but for the minority they need our help, we need to show grace to them and let them show grace to us.
If I have learned anything from this trip, it is that we must act. A role model of mine, Bob Goff once said that he has a sign on his office door, which reads, “To live a great life, Love God, Love Others, Do things.”
I believe this applies to all of us.
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