Greetings from the Mountaintop! Joseph here!
On February 5th, a small team of local church-goers, camp staff and volunteers will be traveling with me to South America to serve at a missionary training center, and we are all super excited. And the reason we go is because we cannot stay. What I mean by that is that, if you have experienced the love of God and you understand the suffering of those separated from Him, you cannot be inactive. To truly believe that God loves everyone, as the Bible teaches, means that you will do something!
For example, if someone was walking in the road and there was a car coming, I would shout for them to move or try to push them out of the way. In the same way, because I truly believe that God loves everyone, but that some people are separated and suffering, I cannot be inactive. I must do something!
But what can we do?
It can seem daunting to look at the world and see all the struggles. Overwhelming even. We can ask ourselves what difference we can make. There IS one thing we can do: we can be obedient. And our obedience makes a difference, because the Church is God's plan A to change the world. God doesn't use us because He needs to, He uses us to make a difference because He loves us and wants to.
Allow me to share a story :
A little boy was walking the beach at sunrise, and as he went along he was picking up starfish and throwing them into the ocean. An old man was watching from his beachfront condo, and as he looked all up and down the expanse of the beach, he saw starfish everywhere. The sun was rising, and the old man knew that it was impossible to save even half the starfish.
"Hey, son." The old man called. "Why are you wasting your time? You won't be able to make a difference to all these starfish."
The boy looked up at the old man, and he gently placed another starfish back in the water. "I know, sir. But I made a difference to that starfish."
Today, please look for places you can be obedient to love God and love others. No, you may not be able to make a difference in every single person's lives, but God absolutely can and He chooses to use us in very specific ways. Make a difference today by choosing to obey God.