We had the opportunity to hang out with a great lad named Adam from Leeds, UK for the past 2 weeks. He is passionate about social justice including refugees, missions work and the environment. He is devoting his whole life to it! His passion made me think…
What is my role as a Christian? What should I care about and spend my time and money on (biblically speaking)? Am I really serving Christ with the actions in my life? Should I care more about refugees (or insert any other issue)?
As I pondered these questions, I read a blog post from Jenni which really sums it up for me.
We are the body of Christ. Each member does something different. God ignites a passion in each one of us to further His Kingdom. Some will create worship music, some will train the next generation, some will stand up for women in leadership, some will fight for clean water and medical supplies around the world, some will care for the sheep - all working for the good of the Kingdom.
We should not be filled with guilt if we aren’t personally passionate about doing all of these things.
In a company, you don’t feel guilty that you aren’t doing the payroll if your job is to do marketing.
Trust that God is putting the right desires in the right people’s hearts to fulfill His mission.
We are part of a community (also called the Body of Christ) that is doing the whole work. I may be passionate and focusing my time on mentoring teenagers, but I can also support Shelly, Whitney and Pastor Sarah in Ethiopia – and they support me too. This makes us connected in the body…We can’t do it all ourselves, but we can be true to the passion God has put in our hearts.
I may never go on a missions trip…that doesn’t mean I’m not doing what God planned for me.
Tags: Commandments, God, Life, Love, Missions, Passion, religion, Social Justice
The body of Christ needs to learn this! We all have unique callings and giftings that need to be tended to and respected. Too often you hear about division in the Church because one group is concerned about Issue A while the other is concerned with Issue B, we need to conglomerate and nourish unity. Adam had a really cool quote from his latest blog entry:
“God endowed us with a prophetic imagination to be able to work as agents of transformation for the world around us, to effect His salvation on every level from the spiritual to the material. It is with this imagination that we have the power (God’s power) to indeed live as a people set apart from the world’s systems, if not in an absolute sense then in a sense which demonstrates to people that another way is possible, and that we don’t always have to give up on ever trying to carve out new visions and fresh ways of approaching our lives.”
hey judy, just wanted to say that i love your blog. i usually read it once a week or so. your passion is awe-inspiring. what i love about the community of God is that every person has a different and unique calling!
Bethany!!! You have been lurking! Thank you for reading I hope you continue to comment and add to the discussion! How are you???
Well said, Judi. Why is it that we envy the gifts and passions of others so much? Thanks for including me in the post!!
“We should not be filled with guilt if we aren’t personally passionate about doing all of these things. ”
You can’t possibly do all things. There are far too many things Christians feel guilt over that they simply shouldn’t. For example, feeling like you are personally responsible to lead everyone you meet to Christ in less than a week. Let’s just start serving God and put the guilt behind us. We are only a small part of a much larger body.
Jenni & Total Transformation: I’m so glad you agree. This revelation has really brought some much needed freedom in my life. I worry so much that things aren’t getting done and I should be doing more. Now I can focus on what God has ignited in my heart!
Well written…. I love the community of believers. It is great that I don’t have to do everything! If I’m a mouth, I can’t balance the body like the big toe can, does that mean I’m not part of the Body? Paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 12…
Very well written post
@Bajanpoet – WELCOME TO THE COMMUNITY!!!