Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

I’ve struggled lately with the overwhelming burden of solving ALL of the problems of the world. As a child you’re taught to dream big, right? Well, I sometimes am foolish enough to think that I can do anything. I can come up with a plan that will fix world hunger. I can solve the problem of homelessness. I can counsel someone who is planning to commit murder(s) and make that desire go away. I can provide enough love to every person I meet to last a lifetime. Truth is none of those things are things I can do…alone. I can’t make someone want to do things for others. I can’t make those around me selfless. It’s not my job to change hearts…I don’t have that kind of power. What I can do is be a living example of a life of the One who can. I truly believe that it is all of our responsibilities to fix the injustices of our world, but only because we believe in Christ’s love for us and it is overflowing from our hearts.  
 

“People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. 
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. 
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.”
–Mother Teresa

 
I feel as though believers have begun to overlook the significance of the absence in simple things like hope and love and how far those two things can get you. We are so consumed with ourselves that we forget about something as cliché as “loving your neighbor.”  I am as guilty as the next person of this if not more. I’ve made everything about me and have completely lost my purpose. Through teaching my high school kids Sunday mornings, I have been reminded of the responsibilities we have as Christians and the areas I am lacking. While challenging them to become selfless I too have reevaluated my life and the intentions behind the things I do. If we could all step up to be a light who knows what would become of our world. It’s so simple yet we’ve made it out to be this impossible task. How can we stand and point fingers when we are the ones to blame? We are not being the examples God has required as His children.

As I mentioned earlier, I look at all the problems and become overwhelmed once I realize I can’t change hearts. Instead of looking at all of the world’s problems as a whole I’m going to break it down. I’m challenging myself to do at least one thing for someone else every day. I feel like the results will be two fold. First, my heart will change. I will grow to be more selfless and compassionate. And, secondly, I will show love to someone who may not get that anywhere else. I may be naïve in thinking that this could have a huge effect on people today but that’s ok. My heart is in the right place I can promise you that. The Scripture I’ve decided to focus on this week is I Corinthians 13. 

 
 
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 
 We have to be the light the world needs to see. If we aren't nothing will ever change!