Summer of Blessing

This summer Sugar Grove is doing the Summer of Blessing which is a week by week challenge to help us be a light for Jesus Christ where we live.

Earlier this week I was reading through a couple of Paul's letters with someone and it really struck me how wildly different his attitude and lifestyle were from our typical American Christian lifestyle.

We tend to put our 'Christian' effort into church related things and then work somewhere, go to school somewhere, live somewhere, go to eat somewhere etc...We give very high value to being happy. We want to be happy and we don't want to do anything that would cause anyone around us to be unhappy. Our happiness is typically determined by how much things are going our way in life. Our attitude is typically dependant upon how happy we are.

Paul lived out his walk with Christ wherever he was. His focus in life was to make sure everyone around him heard the news of Jesus Christ- no matter where he was. He was more concerned about Jesus Christ than he was about happiness. However his attitude was not determined by how much things were going his way. His attitude was determined by the incredible hope of life in Christ. It did not matter what was going on in life, whether shipwrecked or in prison, because his attitude was shaped by Christ. He was not concerned about making sure his life was happy or about making sure those around him were happy. Instead he showed love and peace to those around him, even his guards in prison, and made sure everyone around him knew of the incredible news of Jesus Christ- even if learning about Jesus Christ would make others unhappy.

As I thought through Paul's life as compared to my life I realize I am just about a 180 opposite from Paul. How did that happen?! I love God and I want to live for him and I want others to know about Jesus Christ but somewhere along the way I have devised my own plan for what it means to live as a Christian and that plan sure does look different than Paul's plan.

So tomorrow I will change and start living just like Paul! Great. Except changing in one day just doesn't work very well. It takes weeks and weeks and months and months to change. So how do I change to be more like Paul.

One step at a time.

I have to learn that letting my light shine isn't something I do at 11600 West Airport Blvd and no place else. I have to learn to listen to God's Holy Spirit every step of my day. I have to change what I am doing which means spending a little less time doing my Christianity at the church building and a little more time living for God where I am. I need to learn to see the people around me with God's eyes and not with my eyes.

Summer of Blessing is an incremental challenge to pay attention and act with the people who I am around every day.