Turn, Turn, Turn...

I'm learning more and more how easily and quickly people can turn on you: whether it's in life, church, sports, whatever. This last weekend the Detroit Lions got hammered pretty hard by the Chicago Bears. All of sudden, Matt Stafford (the Lion's quarterback) went from the most beloved man in Detroit to one of the most hated. After 1 game that he played with a broken pinky, and was throwing a large, light-weight ball into 40 mph wind gusts.
I was listening to the radio on the way home from lunch today and people were calling for him to be benched, saying he was terrible, saying he's never been good; this after just a month ago people were saying he would be the one to carry the Lions to their first Superbowl in a billion years.
Turned on so quickly... (this is why I'm okay with not being a professional athlete)
It happens so often. There's no compassion anymore. This is one example of a growing epidemic in our society. One minute, people are telling you how amazing you are and what a great job you're doing and how awesome a person you are, the next you can't do anything right.
Why do I bring this up. Well, it really makes me think about how truly blessed we are that God isn't a human. Could you imagine if God looked at us the way we look at each other? What would happen if one minute we were following God and He loved us for it, then we do one thing wrong and all of the sudden He hates us? I know this is how a lot of people actually do view God, but in Romans chapter 8 it tells us nothing we can ever do can ever separate us from His love. It's awesome, truly awesome.
So the next time someone angers you, says something you don't like, or hurts you in some way, instead of turning on them and hating them for it, try to have a little compassion. I think if we had more compassion in this world for our friends, family, co-workers, and especially for our church leaders, this world would be a lot nicer place to live.

Arms and Legs

Last Saturday, My youth group, along with 4 or 5 other youth groups from Dearborn, had an event called "Ignite". What we did, was take some food (that was delicious, egg noodles with meatballs, fresh salad, carrots, and homemade brownies) and go down to Martin Luther King blvd. and 3rd Ave., right in front of a warming shelter, and just hand out food and about 200 winter coats. It was amazing. It was easy. And it helped people.
I think we tend to think that we because we don't want to sell everything we have and give it to the poor, that means we can't do anything. But for some reason, I think this is why we Christians get a bad wrap. We talk about how in church that all creation are our brothers and sisters, because we all call God "Father" (or at least we Christians say He is the Father of all creation), yet we're totally content with the fact that every night we have brothers and sisters within 10 miles of us going to bed cold, hungry, and alone. I'm not saying what we did changed lives (even though I think it did for some of our students), what I'm saying is there are little things we CAN do, that are still helpful, and still let people know we care about them.
I think this goes beyond just helping those in need, I think it refers also to how we treat people in every day life. Think about it, if someone presented a religion to YOU where it was totally based on community, love, and service, then you learned the church split because they added a drumset, and that upset people, would that be a religion you would want to embrace? Of course not.
We need to change. I'll be the first to say I need to change. We need to start practicing what we preach. We need to start acting like we believe what we say. Maybe then we won't be known as hypocrites, but we'll be known as loving servants, who treat EVERY person like they're our brothers and sisters. Maybe then we can actually be proud of and embrace the fact that we ARE God's arms and legs in this world.