Comfort Zones

I do have an excuse for taking so long to write into the New Year. I've been deciding on a word.

A word you say? Yes. A word. Just one. To sum up this new year. One word that I want to do and become and glorify God with. So that's what I've been doing. Choosing my word. Waiting to hear from God with the green light.

This process started out a little chaotic. The thoughts in my head were consuming my heart. What word would I choose? What did I want to be in this next year? What did I want to accomplish? What was hindering me from being that person and doing those things?

My first word was forgive. Then God refined it into mercy, and finally compassionate.

com•pas•sion•ate
1. Share the suffering of
2. Showing or having compassion; humane, merciful, sympathetic

The word for me. Compassionate. It has been on my heart to be and show God's compassion to others. Yesterday morning on my way to church, I passed a homeless man sleeping under an overpass. Seeing him heaped under those blankets hit me so hard I almost wrecked the car. I don't know why this man hit me more than the others I have passed and seen. But as I drove past him, my heart cried "That could just as easily be me laying there...why do I get to have a warm place to lay my head at night? What makes me so much better?? Our hearts are the same! Dirty and ugly and sinful. But I'm the one showered and well rested...and he's the one shivering and hungry sleeping on the ground."

Though the fact that we live in a broken world is obvious, sometimes we look past it. Ok, alot of times we look past it. We too often have thoughts of intimidation towards our world that needs God's love. "That problem is too big for me. What could I give? What would it help?"

And this is where our faith in God takes a backseat to the insecurities that plague our minds. We need to remember that we are fully resourced to do everything God has called us to do.

I can do all this through Him who gives me strength...Philippians 4:13

It's time that we stop selling Christ for silver. It's time we as the church start changing the world, instead of allowing the world to change the church.

The solution?

Do what we can to minister with compassion and relevance.

Be in the Word everyday. Not when it's convenient. Not when we are exhausted at the end of a long day. Not fitting it in for thirty minutes before we spend an hour on facebook.
Be in the Word.

When we drown ourselves in the Word of God we can better understand the clear biblical vision of God and what He wants done. We need to return to the Biblical vision of righteousness, justice, love and compassion.

We need to show compassion to the victims of tragedy. To be compassionate to the victims of a selfish and materialistic society. The unlovely. The failures. The poor. The homeless. The handicapped. The unwanted children and the forgotten elderly. We need to continually be in prayer. Our hearts need to break for that which breaks His. And we can only do this with the word compassion in mind and on our hearts.

To be compassionate must come with a strong desire to alleviate the suffering. And there is something we all can do. Today.

Each one of us comes across someone each and everyday. Someone that is hurting. Someone who is alone and feeling unloved. Someone who has the weight of the world on their shoulders.

Give.
Give of your resources in some way. Time, money, whatever. It doesn't have to be alot. I think we get intimidated because we think that the something little we give is just that. Little. When in all reality, something little of yours is usually something huge to someone else.

Pray for them.
And I don't mean pray for them when you get home at night or when it is convenient. Let me challenge you...

Dig a little deeper. Approach them. Ask them how they are. How they really are. Ask if you can pray with them. The woman in front of you in line at Starbucks who just dropped her drink on the ground. The co-worker you have noticed coming into work looking exhausted and beaten down. The clerk at the gas station that looks lost. Scary? It can be. But remember, you aren't asking them to get too far out of their comfort zone. You aren't asking them to come to church. You aren't asking them for an offering. You aren't asking them to join a small group and bring a dessert.

Listen to where God is leading you today. Who does He want to reach through you? You never know what struggles that person is going through and what cross they are carrying. They may have just asked God for help...and He is trying to use you. Let Him. Surrender yourself to Him each and everyday. See where He can use you and your compassion.

So let's open our hearts, open our ears, and open our mouths to speak the Word of God to ourselves and to others.

Let's get out of our comfort zone.