1.
to inspire or possess with a foolish or unreasoning passion, as of love.
I hope that I have not been blogging too frequently over the last week. But given the rabid followers that I have, they probably check back everyday and are all caught up on their readings. Har har har har... uhh, yeah.
As this is the last day of my life, I am often asking myself: am I ready? Am I ready to start a new life? Am I ready to take on the challenges that will be about a million times harder than ever? Am I ready to develop a new identity? Am I willing to prove myself all over again? No one will know who I am, no one knows what I've done in my life up to this point, and no one will care. So, I've got to ask myself: am I ready? And I can answer that question without hesitating. No. *gasp* then why are you doing it? Because. I have to tell you that, I have never been ready for anything in my life; and it shows in my spontaneous character. However, can anyone truly say that they're really ready for everything that life throws at them? I don't think so. Even if you know that something is going to happen, you can prepare all you want for it. But when the time actually comes, and unless you can tell the future, no one can say that they are 100% ready because the world is not perfect. Anything can happen, and even though things can take a turn, we are still here.
Anyways, what I'm trying to relate this to is the church. One of the things that I hold closest to my heart is to see a church that makes God smile. I've lived my entire life growing up with a church. Although the church is a bit older than I am, and not all of my years are the most clear in memory, I've been able to witness the growth of North Edmonton Alliance through almost twenty years. I couldn't tell you much about the early years of the church, but I have an idea. Our church has gone through rough times and times where things seem like they were breaking apart. But there is a reason why the church is where it is at now, and hopefully things can keep moving forward.
I'm going to skip all the preamble and go right to what I hope can become of NEAC. So, this message goes directly to everyone that is involved at this moment.
I'm not going to go saying that I'm anything like a prophet or fortune teller, but from some of the people that I've come to know that has worked in the church, we've come to share a very similar vision of the church; I just never told them.
The group of leaders - meaning anyone and everyone involved in serving - right now, from what I see, has tremendous potential. What I mean by potential is the ability to do great things. Unfortunately, I don't think enough people know this. This goes hand in hand with knowing how special it is to be chosen as God's servants. If everyone is able to realize how much of a privilege it is to be a people of God, and is willing to commit to doing so, then the possibilities of what our church is able to do is endless. God doesn't just pick anyone to lead others on behalf of His name, and if you're one of them, even if you just lead a small group or prepare the snacks, it's pretty awesome. If you come across this, I want you to know that you're incredible; and know that you can do great things that you've never even dreamt of doing.
So why isn't anything happening? Part of growing up in Canada is the good life. Everything comes too easy for all of us, myself included. We've barely ever been pushed in our lives; we think we have, but really, does failing a unit exam or not getting a scholarship forcing you to work to pay for tuition really mean you're being pushed to do things? There are always going to be exceptions, and for those, you can clearly see the difference in their lives, what they do and how they do it. Especially when it comes to the spiritual aspect of our lives, we don't give enough respect to how big of an effect it has, or should have, on our lives. Because we don't recognize it as that important, such as putting God first and foremost, we rarely feel the need to need to be challenged. Now I'm not saying that we don't care about our faith at all, but I feel that because of the potential that we have, we can push to that next level that will really make everything feel that much bigger. For me, I had no choice, I had nothing going on in my life, so I had nothing left but to invest everything I had into serving in the church. And sometimes, you just have to be thrown right into everything to be able to come out being glad that you did. I didn't just suddenly choose to be on a worship team. I was thrown right in, and you can probably tell how glad I am that I did. When I was put into a worship team, I had only been playing guitar for four months. Who in their right mind would think that they're ready do play for a worship team if they've only played an instrument for four months. So you learn. I'm a firm believer in learning by experience, and it holds very true for many people that I know.
Lastly, things in life are meant to be shared. Let's say that you put a huge amount of effort and time into serving in the church, or elsewhere. You gain a lot of valuable experience and you've learned a lot in life lessons. The understanding you gain of everything is so huge, but you keep it to yourself. Now imagine the church ten years from now, and for some reason, everything seems to be the polar opposite of how it was before. You see a bunch of people running the church that have no idea what they're doing, and have had next to no help. You feel that in some areas where they are struggling, that you could've had some input, or some way to help and make things better. The experiences, the lessons, that you've gained, if you had shared that with some newer volunteers or helpers could've meant a huge boost for when it was their turn to take the spotlight. The difference is huge. If you could take what you've gained when you were in their spot, and gave it to them so that they could have it, it might've meant the world. So, I just think that if we're so "successful" in doing what we do, if we maximize on our potential, but don't pass it along to the next group of leaders, then what's the point. It's like building an entire city, then burying it, just to have others build it again (did you guys know that Seattle is a city built on top of a city? True story). Grow yourself a love for serving. With an infatuation for the church, who knows what everything will look like twenty years down the road.
Anyways, I'm going to force myself to stop here. My mind is all scrambled from everything, so I can't really get my thoughts out as clear as I would like them. But next time, just ask yourself one thing when you're presented with an opportunity.
"Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?" - Sam Witwicky, Transformers I.
I know right, even a movie like that contains useful information!
**Note** I may have used the term infatuation in the wrong context. If so, then I am probably pretty embarrassed, please forgive me. But give me a break, I like using big words!
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