Scrolling through the newsfeed of my Facebook page, I came across a post shared by a friend of mine.  The article which you can read here:  community helps  is about a 90 year old veteran in Buffalo, NY that was evicted from his long-time home after extremely unfortunate circumstances that he kept from those that loved him, but eventually was redeemed and blessed tenfold by a community of strangers everywhere that heard the news of his personal story online.  I began to select “share & write more” on my own timeline, but as I began to type something simple referencing this heart-warming story, the words that began to flow were not simple.  The words that I wanted to share were spiritual. Thus, I have returned to my dusty blog, swept again under the rug of busyness for too long.

The story of this veteran is one that brings my attention to issues that Americans in general face amidst our highly glamorized, self-invloved, self-empowered society. The first issue being the fact that taking care of your loved ones with cancer can somehow wind up with you losing the house you’ve lived in a majority of your life after fighting for your country. In that small sentence is highlighted America’s messed up medical healthcare systems costing more than our basic needs being met; the treatment of our veterans, or anyone really in the elderly community itself; the sensationalization of everything that is good or bad in this world…you get the idea.  However, this post stirred something deeper in me.  Something spiritual.  A nudge to actually sit down and write. To do more than just scroll through my newsfeed mindlessly wasting precious, paradoxical time.

Recently, I have been bombarded with negativity and entitlement.  Though no one believes themselves to be negative or entitled (myself included on many occassions), the actual reality of complaining stems from a place of entitlement and sheilding of our vulnerabilities.  We complain, and yet do nothing. We believe we know more than whatever person or organization we are working/dealing with, and yet have no intention of cooperatively working with to help orchestrate change.  Again, I am speaking to myself about this too, so please do not mistake my words for calling out others if I were not first calling out myself with the conviction the Holy Spirit has given me recently! I believe I’ve been given this revelation to share in my own words, perhaps that they may spark the fading light of the spirit in a sister or brother called or seeking.

We as a society, Christ-follower or not, are in fact incredibly impatient in our own willingness to work for change if it cannot happen with the blink of our eyes, or the twitch of our nose, or the way we believe it should happen. Yes, this is not just my genXers, or Y, or millienials, or faithful, or faithless…this stems from generations even before color TV!  If you are one that does in fact read The Bible, known to me as the word of God and the history book of His people, or if you know the stories of Christianity’s ancestors, then you know our impatience and entitlement has been a problem since we chose to disconnect from God in the garden long ago. (You also may know the beautiful and underserved redemption that is woven all throughout the old and new testament as well).  Botton line: The world’s problems are nothing new.  So, in our impatience and our lack of self control, we complain.  And we go on. Complaining more. The only “doing” being done is constantly disconnecting ourselves from goodness and God more and more.  We uknowingly, unwittingly are shouting to the heavens: “I know better!” “I can do all of this better!” Yet with the same voice, we scream in anger upwards with a pointed finger: “why aren’t YOU doing anything?”   Do you see the irony?  Ouch.

This story of humanity being good, being what God created us to be in His image; this story that inspires so many is because a simple nudging of the Holy Spirit pulled at the hearts of strangers to change the circumstances of another’s life…and in turn it changed inevitably so much more.  It isn’t the only story. There are tons of non-newsworthy, but epically good actions happening everywhere that only God & the people it touches see.  I recently watched someone who video taped a guy giving a homeless man the shirt off his own back; read an eye-witness account of a former colleague who saw police officers go above and beyond their job to purchase a meal and eat with a homeless man that they ultimately were called to remove from the premises of a McDonald’s.  I love these stories and so do others, but why?

Here is my why: We, you & me, Christ followers, believers in where goodness comes from, believers in goodness, are meant to show GOOD to a broken world; publicized or not…it isn’t about you…it’s about you being used to do good and actually doing some good!  We can scream at God for not “fixing” what’s been wrong with the world since man was created & chose to turn away; we can ignore Him, forsake Him, rationalize Him away, blame Him for all that is bad when His word boldy declares in Him is no darkness at all;  claim His victories as our own; deny He has anything to do with why we seek justice and goodness in humanity if we came from nothing at all…oh, and how we do… but we can also do as our ancestors did; repent with a godly sorrow for what we’ve done wrong, those nudgings we’ve knowingly ignored, and we can choose in every moment to seek God’s good face & work to be a reflection of it to the world; not out of pennance, but out of joy and freedom in Christ, because we know mercy reigns.

I will look at myself & remember that my God already fixed what was wrong when he graced me with the ability to be made new in Christ and gave me a spirit of power and love and sound mind: to know what is good, to hear what is good, to see what is good, to be what is good, to do what is good. (John 14:15-17)   Let us lay down our problems at the feet of Jesus so we don’t have to carry weights too heavy for us; calling on Him, trusting in His time, asking Him to show His face to us in our unbelief, and patiently waiting without complaint for more freedom than a billion dollars will ever give the human soul…

Those small, random acts of kindness are rarely random and never small. I’ll leave with this Matthew West song that pointedly convicted me the first time I heard it. I hope it convicts you too.   “Do Something”