Salted Rim

I am not an experienced aid worker or the CEO of a major NGO; although I have traveled nearly around the world. The dynamic of western relief must change. The dynamic of how we in the west look at challenges and their solutions domestically and internationally must change.

Christians must embrace a personal responsibility not rely solely on the prayers and invisible hand of God to correct all that is wrong. We must embrace people and show love as Christ loved. Christians must stand to the challenge of the prophetic voices of our time. No longer will an aid package be the answer. Well-fare is no longer the only solution.

Christians have a concern for the state of our society and the souls of that society. It is time that we own the problems and be the solutions the answers to the prayers of the masses. The church can no longer be just interested in saving peoples souls. Nor can they be entirely interested in notching another soul onto their belt of success. The ministry that Jesus calls us to be part of is not one of getting people saved alone, but bringing people to life and one lived well.

Challenge our ideas about education and our roles in education. Running to the private schools will never be the answer to the question of salvation for the lost or of owning a problem in society while functioning as the solution.

I was once a recruiter for a missions agency. My role included but not limited to engaging college students with the world beyond their world. To tell those stories that go untold. The question is how can we be Jesus the great physician, how can we be Jesus the master chef, how can we be Jesus the teacher and mentor, how can we be pastors, finally how will we be the hands and feet of Jesus.

How can we afford to pay for things like this? Who will pay for it? All great questions, but far less important than who will go. You see for me out there where the people are, money is not the greatest need people who love and sacrifice are the greatest need.

Money can buy all kinds of things it can feed people for days. However, people you see can feed people or better yet help people to feed themselves for life. You see your checks are important the money we give is crucial, but more than money, we need people. Money does not save anybody. People led by the will of God and his compassion, acting as reconciliatory agents for His world.

The king of pop as weird or strange as he could be engages this idea with a challenging message for Christians in this world with his song, “Man in the Mirror.”  It is in that song where the true trial, what our Muslims friends call Jihad starts. I can only ask people to do so much but at some point, I have to buy what I am selling.

I am a bartender and I sell food and drink. I am there to provide an experience but the I limit myself by how well I know the very experience that I am selling. We have to start with ourselves. We have to look in the mirror and stop ignoring the problems we see and passing responsibility off on the government or the minority population of any congregation that bears majority burden.

We cannot be those who identify the problem but only complain about the jobs of those who are actively working to be the solutions. I have to challenge us with more than a thought. Our lives have more meaning than merely that which we might have thought or said. Jesus’ life was remembered as much or more by what he did as to what he said the Gospel’s are full of the things he did.

Today I challenge you to consider the problems of society, the neighborhood, the school, the … you fill in the blank. Identify the problem and seek out an opportunity to be the solution. Find those who are interested to help and rally the community to fix or improve what is not at it’s best. We might find that the very children the laborers of God might answer the prayers that people have been praying.

Matthew 9
³⁵Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”