In one case a young man 27 years old took his life the day before we got there, tragically we were too late.
I guess you could argue our decision to go Saturday night instead of Friday night was just coincidental and that we shouldn't have felt responsible or that maybe we'd missed God, but then again if we had knocked on his door the night before, maybe God would have used us to get him set free.
Another time we arrived a few days after a 17 year old girl had attempted suicide, heartbreaking, I know we could have helped her if we had been there a little sooner.
Lately I've been more convinced than ever, our lives and decisions, aren't as insignificant as we might think.
God's not just given us the authority and power to bring the good news, he's given us the responsibility and the opportunity.
The recent horrific mass murders have many searching for answers. There is much debate regarding how to produce change in our society. Sadly the only input I hear from most Christians is criticism towards our politicians and legislators.
Although I understand the debate and the frustration with the lack of sound response from our government, I am more disturbed by the lack of response from the church.
Have you ever been playing a game, maybe chess or checkers and you and your opponent are quietly staring at the board for a while and suddenly your opponent goes "oh it's my turn?"
I feel like this is what needs to happen with many Christians today, myself included.
We need a wake up call, we need to say "oh, it's my turn?".
Jesus said "as long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world."
In other words, He was the answer for the injustice during His time on the earth.
He wasn't just disturbed by the injustice, He had a passion for bringing Justice to the world around Him. What would happen if Christians all over began to wake up and not just be disturbed by what's going on in our world today, but we began to take action.
What if we began to feel the responsibility of bringing the good news of the kingdom to our world.( I'm getting stirred up just writing about it.)
Jesus told his disciples "you are the light of the world" in other words you have the answer, you have the responsibility to bring justice to the world around you, just as I showed you.
It's hard for us to believe lives are at stake, but they truly are. It's so easy for us to continue living as if it's somehow someone else's responsibility.
I can't help but think of the recent tragedies and wonder, were there any Christians in the shooters lives that could have gotten them set free? Maybe they passed through my city and walked by me.
What if someone would have showed up on their doorstep with the gospel of the kingdom days before the shootings, how would things have been different? When you look at it that way, our steps don't seem so small do they....
