One of the nine or so books we picked up at the Awaken conference is Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus. The president of Walk Disney World Resort Al Weiss said, "Chasing Daylight is a powerful book that helps you see your potential and motivatesyou to press toward the mark immediately!" That pretty much summarizes my personal montra right there. The book is about seizing the power of every moment.
This book has some great chapters. One of them is called Initiative. Erwin talks about a Christian who learns to leave sin, but then stops. Here's what he writes:
"We have devined holiness through what we separate ourselves from rather than what we give ourselves to. I am convinced the great tragedy is not the sins that we commit, but the life that we fail to live.
You cannot follow God in neutral. God has created you to do something. It is not enough to stop the wrong and then be paralyzed when it comes to the right. God created you to do good. And doing this requires initiative. There is a suble danger of hiding apathy behind piety. Getting rid of the sin in your life? Great. Now it's time to do something.
James, the half brother of Jesus, once concluded that if you know what is right to do and you do not do it, it is sin. He gave us God's perspective on inaction - what we could perhaps call living a passive life."
I know I've fallen into this in my life. Purifying myself from the more obvious sins was, well, obvious. The Holy Spirit convicted me on what had to go. But then I just went along my comfy little life. Sometimes reaching out to the hurting and lost is even more difficult when you work in a church. You might think there are people in need who come to a church for help all the time. We get several a day. But I'm not always the one to help them. I'm rarely the one who helps them. I work with Christians, I go to church with Christians, not that I can't reach out to them, but in a church with small groups, everyone pretty much is well connected when the need help. It's not lik working in a secular industry where the issues are more prevalent and the people don't always have the safety nets that are in place with small groups. It makes me regret not helping people more when I was there.
So, initiative. There are opportunities all around you. Family. Friends. Co-workers. Strangers. Stick your neck out. Tomorrow I'll tell you a story about a guy who reluctantly did just that and the huge difference it made in someone's life. Blessings.
