Patching Holes

Just this past weekend the teenagers that I minister to went to work patching some holes in the fellowship hall of our church. I have to be honest. I'm impressed with the result. It looks good and I was happy to see how they worked together and each and every one of them had a hand in it.

One of them measured, a few of them took turns cutting. Others climbed the ladders while someone else manned the screw gun to fasten the boards to the wall. Even one of them helped in the clean up.

In the middle of the project we stopped and ate and I led a quick devotion based on Micah 6:8----

8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

It's a great piece of scripture and has a lot to say about how we need to live our lives as believers. I hope that you can be encouraged as well by this passage.

It really provides a filter as to our responsibility in this world.

First, we need to act justly. I like to say that we need to "act in justice" or "provide justice." Now I'm not talking some crazy social justice agenda, but we need to be champions for those who are not as fortunate as we are. Justice is definied as "fairness."

In a world where often times fairness is lacking, we have the opportunity as Believers to provide it to the people and the situations that we encounter. What kind of impact could we have as Christ Followers if we can break the stereotype of the judgemental, right wing, fundamental Christian with our "fair" actions? I believe that we could do much more in the task of bringing people towards Christ instead of away from Him.

Secondly, we need to love mercy. Like always, extending Grace to all is central to everything we do. How can we not when Grace is poured out on us so freely. I don't deserve the blessings and even the life that I have. Mercy has been given to me, from God, through Christ. How can I deny my fellow man that gift.

Bottom line: I can't.

We all have a tremendous obligation to extend mercy and grace to a very hurt world. Like the holes in the wall, we need to be there to help make the world around us look a little better. It will take some work. It will take some time. We even might have to push the boundaries of our faith and get up on the ladder and do things that we haven't done before. I'm willing to get my hands a little dirty. Are you?

Lastly, walk humbly. We need to live this life serving others, but not boasting about it. If we boast at all, the credit needs to be focused on Christ.

I work with juvenile deliquents full time outside of ministry. Every day, each youth must show evidence of a "target area" that is assigned to them. My favorite is initiative. One particular youth with this target area decided to let it be known that he was going above and beyond the requirements of a specific task.

I gently criticized him and explained that "taking initiative" is doing what needs to be done AND not drawing attention to it.

I'm amazed at how many churches and organizations try to toot their own horns when it comes to serving people and doing good. If the motivation is to draw attention, aren't we really missing the point?

The Church is a great abuser of this mentality. We do things. We get involved in things just to make ourselves a name. Of course, we couch this in the idea of drawing people to the church so that we can present the Gospel.

Shouldn't we let the Holy Spirit convict hearts? Shouldn't we do good for the sake of doing good? We need to walk humbly and let God do the tooting.

Imagine what would be accomplished if we could all live our lives through that lens. The results would be incredible.

Afterwards, I was at the church alone, doing some last minute checks on the lights and such and I just stood in the gym and looked at where those holes used to be and the patches that are there now.

It kind of all came together in that one moment.

Here is a group of teenagers living that out. Yes, they made the holes, but here they were actively doing their part in the repair.

We as The Church have made some huge holes in the world. We've hurt people. We've made messes. We've broken things, but are we going back to repair the damage?

We all have a part to play in patching up the holes we've all made. The best way to do that: Act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly.