Welcome to Wednesday and to our discussion of Richard Stearns’ book, The Hole in Our Gospel! My co-facilitator, Jason Stasyszen and I thoroughly enjoy our discussions about this book and we welcome you to stay and discuss the topics each week, whether you’ve read the chapter or not. Each week, we provide a link widget. This week, the link widget is at Jason’s site, Connecting to Impact. We ask that if you’ve written your own post on this chapter, you link it up there. And we invite and encourage you to read each of the entries there because we have such great contributors! We hope you enjoy the discussions and we hope you keep coming back to take part!
And now, Chapter 14 – Finally, the Good News
It’s been a few pretty tough weeks, hasn’t it? We’ve read about and discussed some heavy, heavy topics. Poverty. Hunger. Nakedness. Disease. Death.
But this week, we see the silver lining. The light at the end of the tunnel, if you will.
The Good News? Things are bad, but not as bad as they used to be. And things are getting better. Why? Because people like you and I are reaching out to help.
I know it would be appropriate here to insert a quote from the chapter, but I had another tucked away that I’d like to share.
“I used to ask God why people suffer like this. Finally I came to the place where I stopped asking questions and started being the answer.” – Biju Thampy
This is the place that I’m trying to be today. I want to be the answer.
I’ve been hearing this song on the radio a lot and as I was writing this post, it came back to me and I think it speaks perfectly to our discussion.
Matthew West – My Own Little World
In my own little world it hardly ever rains
I’ve never gone hungry, always felt safe
I got some money in my pocket, shoes on my feet
In my own little world, population: me
I try to stay awake during Sunday morning church
I throw a twenty in the plate but I never give ’til it hurts
And I turn off the news when I don’t like what I see
Yeah, it’s easy to do when it’s population: me
What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose?
I could be living right now
Outside my own little world
Stopped at a red light looked out my window
I saw a cardboard sign said, “help this homeless widow”
And just above that sign was the face of a human
I thought to myself, God, what have I been doing?
So I rolled down the window and I looked her in the eye
Oh, how many times have I just passed her by?
I gave her some money than I drove on through
And my own little world reached population: two
What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose?
I could be living right now
Outside my own little world
My own little world
Father, break my heart for what breaks Yours
Give me open hands and open doors
Put Your light in my eyes and let me see
That my own little world is not about me
What if there’s a bigger picture?
What if I’m missing out?
What if there’s a greater purpose?
That I could be living right now
I don’t want to miss what matters
I wanna be reaching out
Show me the greater purpose
So I can start living right now
Outside my own little world
My own little world
My own little world
About Sarah Salter
I can’t see the video, but the words are great. Reminds me of another favorite, Brandon Heath’s “Give Me Your Eyes.” It is interesting, I’m reading one chapter a week so whatever the chapter is sticks with me for a whole week. These past few have been hard, but it’s a needed reality and understanding. Since I’ve ‘dwelled’ there for several weeks now, I feel like I didn’t have the temptation to read this chapter and go “oh good, everything’s turning out better now.” It was more of a pressing to keep going and reach further and help all the more. Anyway, I love how God works!
I don’t know if any of this makes sense today, but thanks for the great post (that makes perfect sense). 🙂
Love the song and the quote. Striving to be a part of the answer too.