This past weekend, we continued our series called the Hunger Games. But we did it a little different. That's because we focused this week on kindness and goodness and what it would it should look like in Christian life.
We were honored to have Mike Hynes with us to share his experiences growing up and the events that led to him being at East Tennessee Christian Home. What we learned is, not everyone is as they seem.
There are young people and adults who pass is every day that are truly going through some major things and just need someone to show them the love of God in a practical way.
Mikes story was moving and there wasn't many dry eyes in the house.
A real story like that should move us to action. It's not enough to say that you care about those that may be affected by life, you have to put your care to action. Not to be seen, but to make a difference. It's about your motivation.
I recently heard Coach Bill Courtney talk about his experiences at a Virginia High School. When he arrived the school had one very few games in a 10 year period. So he and his staff worked all off season to change the culture and mindset of the team. After 6 games, they had already won 3 games. That may not seem good, but it almost equaled the number of games they had one in 7 years. There was excitement and many of the players were improving off the field too.
But the coach noticed that half the team was not buying in to the system. So he went to his guy on the team and asked what they could do as coaches to change this. The player told him that he really didn't want to say. But after some persistence from the coach the player finally told him why...those students that didn't buy in were waiting to see if he was a "turkey person."
A turkey person? That was what they called the people who only showed up to give out food for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They came to have their picture made or to have an instagram story. Their motivation was about feeling good.
That's the problem with a lot of church outreach, it's about making us feel good. But real outreach to people is not motivated by our feelings. It's motivated by the heart of God and following what He desires for us to do.
God loves people. It's what drives everything that He does.
He has called us to be Salt and Light in the world. Salt has qualities that flavor, preserves, and purifies. Our kindness is the salt of our life. People will see what is on the inside long before they see what your actions are. That's the motivation!
The Light is your goodness. It is the good works that you do. The Bible teaches us that our actions, the good works, has the power to lead people to the cross. It lets them seem the gospel and not just hear it.
When you hear stories like we did yesterday, our kindness should come out and motivate us to action. That happened with our church! They were motivated to give of themselves, not for recognition but to make a difference and to continue it going forward.
Our Christmas outreach this year is the Isaiah 117 House. We are not a big church but we are being faithful to what God has called us to do in this moment. Not for recognition or to have people say look at us...but because God loves them. We will never personally work in those houses, but we can do something. We can give.
When you are presented with opportunity to be Salt and Light, what will you do?
PJ