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.