I LOVE the children’s books by Laura Numeroff. You know the ones: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Pig a Pancake. I think the reason I adore these books and Laura’s writing is because that’s exactly the way my thought process works. I’d say roughly 90% of the time my thinking starts with an “If [this], then [that]…” and it continues, “If [that], then [the other]…” and so on and so on until I finally get to a stopping place. Can anybody else out there relate?
It happened just the other day. I started wondering why we let satan spoil our plans so much of the time. And then I thought that maybe we give him too much credit. Maybe we place the blame on him for things that we don’t want to own up to. Now hear what I’m saying. I know what satan’s job is. His main objective is to keep as many people from eternal life as possible. Part of that job involves limiting the effectiveness of those of us on the opposing team. But we give in too easily. We don’t try hard enough to resist. And I think we defeat ourselves to the point that he and his associates don’t really need to expend much energy at all.
My thoughts then turned down an unexpected lane. It dawned on me that maybe we as a generation, as a nation (America), as the church don’t really know how to fight. I don’t mean argue, complain, or quarrel. Those are things we unfortunately do all too well. No, I mean actually fight. Stand up against. Battle. Wage war. Most people alive today have never really had to fight for anything. We don’t get the concept of fighting to keep something or fighting to stop something undesirable from advancing. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe these thoughts are just my own personal experience. I don’t have many battle scars at all.
Hang on, here comes the next turn.
Then I began to think about the many people in this world who need someone fighting for them. Maybe they don’t really have a voice or maybe their voice is just being drowned out by the selfishness of others. And maybe, just maybe you and I need to be their voice. Maybe we need to stand up and wage war against an enemy who aims to “kill, steal and destroy” our brothers and sisters, our sons and our daughters, our parents and our neighbors.
Then I had more questions. Who do I need to fight for? What do I need to battle against? For that matter who do you need to fight for and what do you need to fight against? I’m not suggesting you randomly pull a cause out of a hat and come out swinging. I am however, suggesting you pay close attention to what God places in your heart. There is a reason you are moved by the plight of single mothers, or widows, or orphans. It’s no coincidence that you can’t get those troubled teens or forgotten senior citizens off your mind. Maybe you can’t sleep at night for thinking about the homeless, the jobless, or the helplessly abused. If so, it’s quite possible that God is calling you to be their voice. And when I say voice, I don’t mean whisper either.
It’s time to gear up. Put on that armor. Step out in faith. Give your heart a voice.
Earlier this week I wrote about the Power of One. A picture of how God multiplies what we surrender in ways we cannot even comprehend. But another way the multiplication process works is when we each become a voice for those often forgotten, a message is finally heard, it’s amplified. Change happens. Life is extended. Hope is restored. God is honored.
So who needs your voice? Who will you fight for?
*See what I mean? It’s as bad as giving a mouse a cookie or a moose a muffin. But I kind of like where this one landed. 2010 is going to be a landmark year. I just feel it!
i saw GOD today 