Last night a group of us at our church finished up a study on the book Love Does by Bob Goff. (If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it*) One of the main premises of the book is to think about life and love’s effect upon life differently. He even closes the book with an incredible chapter about a small idea that became a huge reality and eventually his life’s work and passion. My challenge at the close of our study was to brainstorm together some big ideas for the way our church could impact the community and world around us. Some of the ideas that we cam up with seemed relatively easy to accomplish. Some seemed like they might take a little bit of work. And a few even seemed nearly impossible…guess which one’s sparked my imagination the most?
Throughout the study on Love Does I have been introducing the participants to a certain internet personality. His name? Kid President. If you haven’t seen any of his YouTube videos stop reading this now and click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z7gDsSKUmU. Did you do it? Ok then, now we may proceed. The reason I enjoy Kid President so much and the reason I felt the need to add him to our discussion of Love Does is because he doesn’t see change and reshaping the world as an impossibility. It kind of reminds me of an encounter that took place in scripture. Jesus’ disciples were downcast because they had tried to tackle something all the while “knowing” they couldn’t do it. They had tried to heal a man’s son in their own power. Jesus response to them? “He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” – Matthew 17:20-21.
I think the tie-in for us is that we dream and have our world changing ideas bound up in our own power…which is just silly. Jesus says that with faith (that’s believing in who God is, what He says and what He can do) that we can move mountains, change the world, see God’s Kingdom come. We don’t have to bind our ideas and dreams based on our abilities but rather we let them loose based on God’s ability. We can dream bigger, live bigger, love bigger, change the world in bigger ways because of Him and who He is in us.
For the past eight months I have been learning what it means to be a Texan. One of the things that I knew Texas for prior to my arrival is that everything is bigger in Texas. I have seen bigger burgers, bigger bugs, bigger skys, and I’m getting ready to see bigger high school football games. But what I am really excited about? Seeing bigger dreams and bigger ideas for God’s Kingdom in this world. May we become the people who dream bigger knowing how big our God is.
arpology 