Monday, May 24, 2010

Confession

I know I could be doing more, but sometimes I convince myself that I do enough.

By 'do enough', I mean do enough work for the Kingdom.

It is a direct relation to what I talked about in To the Point of Sacrifice.

It is the attitude that I already commit this much time volunteering, and I do a little bit extra here and there. I do more than a lot of people, and that is good enough.

But it is not.

Recently I have been challenged by Richard Stearns, in his book The Hole in Our Gospel, to examine where and how I am investing my time, talents, and treasure.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." -Matthew 6:21

I want my heart to break for the things the break the heart of God.

And I want my actions to reflect this. In every way, in every opportunity.

In response, I am committing to do more.

I have been praying about how to do this, and this is what God has placed on my heart.

Every month I am going to, with prayer and guidance, choose a challenge.

These challenges may be a personal challenge to strengthen my relationship with God. It may be a challenge to do something way beyond my comfort zone. It may be a challenge to learn, share, give, or go.

But each month it will be something new. And it will offer the opportunity to do more.

And to make things more exciting, I am inviting you to come along.

That's right. Consider it a challenge.

On Friday I will be posting the first challenge, which will be for the month of June. God's already been placing specific things on my heart, and I am excited about how we may be a blessing through these things.

Meanwhile, if you have not already done so, I would encourage you to buy, check-out, or borrow a copy of The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. It will give you insights into God's heart for the poor, and his call for all believers. It will teach you about the different aspects of poverty, and how we can make a difference. And, prayerfully, it will encourage you to do more.

With that said, I leave you with these words from Jimmy Carter:

"My faith demands- this is not optional- my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference."

4 comments:

Tibbi & Choceet said...

Oh! I LOVE THIS! YES! Challenge time - lets go! Praise God! Im on the wagon with you sister. I've felt quite the same. My enemy is laziness and I battle it every day - but no more. I am determined not to let myself slump into idleness. Its not worth it - and someone is waiting on us, everyday, everywhere we go. I commit to doing the challenges with you!
And thank God for you Becca.. you are such a blessing..

Shebecomes said...

Yes! I am so happy you are in! Not to sound hokey or anything, but we are going to (in our humble little way) change the world :)

Mark Langham said...

Just read Richard Stearns book. I sat in Books-a-Million and read it in 5 hours straight. A near flawless book and inspiring beyond words! Thank you for the recommendation.

Shebecomes said...

Yay Mark! I am so happy you read it and liked it as much as I did :)