Author: Rich

The sermon topic was “Finish Well.” We all want to hear “Well done, good and faithful servant.” But as I listened to Jeff’s discussion about crossing the finish line with integrity, I couldn’t help wondering how many folks in the audience were still in the starting blocks. I spent this weekend talking to people about […]

…they’d do something about it, right? If people really understood what these kids endured, really truly got it, they’d have no choice. So that’s the goal: awareness. We gotta make sure everyone knows. Because once they know, they’ll do something. Not so fast, my friend. Smoking causes cancer. And millions – including both of my […]

We’re supposed to add light, not eliminate it. We need to spend our time taking the light of Jesus into the dark corners.

It’s easy to conflate hard and risky, especially from the outside. Doing another trip, riding more miles, following a similar path may appear to be a leap of faith when it’s really just staying committed and doing the hard work.

We give it a clean-sounding name – human trafficking – but it’s *people buying and selling people* for sex or for labor. It’s slavery and it’s a scourge and it’s happening all over the world and in your town.

Sometimes we think what we’re doing isn’t enough, but that sort of “logic” puts us in charge and takes God out of the process. He uses and magnifies our efforts in places and ways we’ll never understand on this side of eternity.

We’re asked only to do our best with what’s in front of us, to keep going when it’s impossible, and trust Him for a result we can’t possibly understand. He’s using our efforts in ways bigger than we imagine, ways we may never see.

Story tellers frequently become pick-n-choosers. They cherry-pick cool-sounding snippets, often out of context.

Leadership, efficiency, fundraising, training – all that stuff matters. But we must do it, every single bit of it, with love. Otherwise, we’re just making noise.

If we’re gonna get in the way anyway, we might as well be intentional about it. We might as well make it count.

We need to be sure we’re following the right dream, God’s dream. Once we’re confident our vision aligns with His, we can work together, do our best to figure out the details, and trust Him for the outcome.