To bowl or to save the world?

I was blessed with spending time with my dear friends last night ... some of us were playing cards while others watched a movie called "The Power of One." OK ... even those of us that were playing cards were finding ourselves watching and playing at the same time. It was an upsetting and unsettling movie about racism in South Africa and one boys reaction to it. Anyway, at one point this young man's girlfriend is upset because she is going to miss her college ball because he wants "to save the world." There was some discussion about this among those watching it and my youngest daughter was asked if she would rather go to a ball or save the world. She responded, "Well when you bowl you get sweaty, so I would save the world." This response caused quite a few people to laugh, but I actually think that there is a profound truth in what she said. In her innocence she might have just laid a huge challenge down for each of us. It is easy for us to say that we love others. It is easy for us to talk about making a difference. It is easy for us to act? What if we asked ourselves the following question from time to time ... "Do I want to _________, or do I want to save the world?" What would happen? I can hear some of you saying ... "but saving the world is impossible for one." I agree. All by myself I can not save the world, but I can help.

I think that the reason that so many of talk about the situation around the world, but do not feel empowered to help change things is because we know that the problem is huge ... and frankly embracing the truth of it all is a bit overwhelming. And so, we tend to use the impossibility of single-handily fixing it as an excuse to let out words of concern be the only thing we do in response to it. BUT ... what if we just decided to do something ... anything. To pick a place to begin. Drea shared in a recent blog that .14 cents can feed someone a meal of posho and beans. 14 cents. A few weeks ago I canceled the extra $6 insurance on my cell phone ... if I loose or damage it I will simply use an old one until my "new every two" comes up again. This six dollars can change to world for some child who has so little, by providing almost 43 meals for him. I still have my phone ... and I don't even miss the insurance. But here is the most amazing part of the whole thing ... making that one decision has begun a change in my heart. I am most certain that there are other things that I won't even miss ... other $6 luxuries that I can forgo and have currently also passed an a few Starbuck's coffee's which will be added to next month's donation.

That's where you come in. I have been toying with the idea of a six dollar challenge. There are no guidelines for this challenge other than to forgo something and give the money to the poor. I am donating mine to Remember the Poor. The other guideline would be that you see it as a place to start ... A way to show yourself that you can make a difference by choosing to let your actions speak of love and not just your words. Are you game? The truth is that $6.00 is not much. It is not enough. BUT, it is a place to start. Are you willing? Let's work at saving the world ... and changing our hearts ... join me and let's see what God does.

My verse for the next two weeks is:

Dear children, let's not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
(1 John 3:18 NLT)

I am going to work at not only memorizing it .. but living it out in my actions as well.

May you hold God's blessings of abundance loosely ...


Lisa