Give Yourself Away

"I was hungry and you gave me no meal, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was homeless and you gave me no bed, I was shivering and you gave me no clothes, sick and in prison, and you never visited…Whenever you failed to do one of these things to someone who was being overlooked or ignored, that was me - you failed to do it to me."   Matthew 25:42-43,45

I'm not great at devotionals.  I'm barely able to get my thoughts out in lyric form as a songwriter, much less write something useful for all of us today.  But maybe God has something for us to connect with that's much bigger than what I can or cannot accomplish with a pen - and so we'll press on.

Lately, I've spent a lot of time thinking about what it means for me to live in this country at this time in history.  As I'm writing this, I've got the air conditioning hitting my face just right as we drive down the highway.  In a few minutes, the band and I will stop and buy something to eat -- whatever we feel like eating at that moment.  When I return home, my house will be comfortable with a nice bed and satellite TV at my disposal.

Elsewhere in the world?  A child is dying every 15 seconds because they don't have access to clean water.  What do we do with that?  With the passage above, with my comfortable existence here, and the idea that dirty water is literally killing children right now, it’s hard to reconcile.

As the band and I have written and recorded our newest album, we've wrestled with these questions and have encountered thousands of folks, especially high school and college students, who are confronting the issues of faith and poverty head on.  There is great hope!

I sense God telling us clearly: do something now.  Don't wait.  Get involved – personally; in your community, in your church, around the world.

Some of you are needing that gentle push off the cliff today into the waters of a missional and giving faith.  God is calling us all to give, to serve, and not fall victim to the luxuries of our culture and lifestyle.  Many of you may just need a starting point, a place to begin.  Here are some great organizations that you can partner with today and begin to see a missional faith come alive:

www.compassion.com
www.water.com
www.bloodwatermission.org
www.ijm.org
www.servlife.org
www.savedarfur.org
www.buckner.org
www.virb.com/giveyourselfaway

Prayer for the Week:  God, simplify our lives.  Align our hearts with yours.  Open our eyes, as followers of You, to the need and injustices around the world.  You, O God, have equipped us and empowered us to act on Your behalf.  Give us courage and strength to love those who are ignored and lost.  God, we give ourselves away for the sake of your mission and your story.  We pray because Your love has no end.  Amen.