In case you missed it, there is a big world out there. I seem to forget that at times. There are wars going on. There are vicious crimes being committed. There are struggles for leadership of nations great and small. There's a big world out there and yet I'm forever concerned about what I will do at the next basketball practice or how baseball tryouts are coming or where I might go eat on Friday. I get so caught up in my own little world that I easily forget there is a big world out there. I can let someone else handle that. There are people smarter than me to think through what is going on so I can worry about so much minutiae in my own life.
As I prepare to talk to junior high and high school students tonight about what we are to be as Christians, it strikes me that I must be aware of the world around me if I am going to serve the world around me. Whether it is taking care of my own family, helping someone in the community or praying for someone in another country I have to be aware of those people and not trapped in thoughts about me. There is a big world out there, a world we are called to serve, and we cannot do it by thinking that someone else with more time, more skill, more "smarts" will go do it. We must be willing to go and to serve and to do so we must be aware.
It is something I struggle with. Too often I am aware of my own needs and desires and too little else. I hope today and tomorrow and the days that follow I will become better at being aware of those around me, those who need me, those I can serve. I serve a Master who is aware, I serve a Master who serves multitudes and that is something I must strive to copy. If I am to be the hands and feet of my Master, I must open my eyes to see past myself.
1 comment:
We are so conditioned by our Western way of thinking. In the East, they think much more in terms of community. I wish we could incorporate a little more of their worldview (not all, but some).
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