Front Page Article
WORDS! WORDS! WORDS!
By Richard Raad, Interim Pastor
Eliza Doolittle is the lead character in the classic musical, My Fair Lady. Everyone around her seems to want her, but all for some self serving purpose. One young man has a strong infatuation for her, but Eliza doesn't trust him. Despite his claims that he loves her, she believes that he's self serving like everyone else. In a pivotal moment in the story, Eliza pours out her pain in a song that says, "Words! Words! Words! All I hear is words. Don't talk of love. Show me!"
Steve VanDenend brought this to our attention last Sunday in his "GO!" message. We are told to go into all the world and make disciples. But we are also told that from Jesus own point of view that is best done when we take the time and effort to demonstrate God's love. He suggested that we should do something for people in need rather than talk about it. Steve was trying to help us see that the people around us, who so desperately need Jesus, are probably singing Eliza Doolittle's song. They're watching and waiting, being preached at from every medium available and all the while saying, "Words! Words! Words! All I hear is words. Don't talk of love. Show me!"
Our focus for the month of July is to do just that. Every Saturday, as well as other times, we will invest in other people, who are in need somehow and show them love. Some of these projects will require some work and some particular skill. But most of them are things that everyone of us can do. And all of us can share in the joy of demonstrating God and His love for people. In fact, we will try to celebrate our experiences each Sunday morning in the service by hearing from some who worked the day before. By inspiring each other, we can stir the vision to realistically become world changers. We'll do it one person at a time.
I believe that here at Fountain of Life, we want to be doing what God told us to do. So many have expressed a desire to "just do something." We are pursuing God in prayer with our 24/7 prayer campaign. We are beginning to embrace a vision to become world changers and to raise up others to become world changers with us. We are all hungry for more of God. We are already stirred up and ready to give God our best. This is a wonderful community to be a part of, right now. So let's go. Let's not talk of love. Let's show them.
In another special moment last Sunday, Maria stepped up to the mic and shared how much we had demonstrated God's love to her. She wept as she thanked us and commended us for the amazing way she had been received and loved by our church family. But in the midst of her remarks, she expressed her concern for the little stirrings and gossips about the lack of unity that some feel is here. This is a concern that is rising up among many right now. I have heard from a number of different folks and it's all over the walls in the Prayer Room. We want to find a greater depth of unity.
When these kinds of things happen, it is good to stop and pay attention. We may look around and say, "Nobody is hurting someone. We all seem to get along. What's the problem?" But, in light of the new vision that we are embracing, it may be that God sees our need to be even more in unity. When we take on the world and try to change it, we will probably experience a little resistance. We will probably find that there are changes that we need to make in our lives in order to really be a world changer. It's not a good time to be alone in the effort. I believe that God is the one stirring up this new burden. When that happens, it's usually a good time to stop and consider this; to pray about it; to discuss it with others. I seriously doubt that we need another Sunday message on unity. We all know what to do, what the scriptures are and what destroys unity. So, I would encourage us all to stop, pray and consider how we can make this a higher priority in our own life. Maybe we should look at each other and hear each one singing Eliza Doolittle's song. "Words! Words! Words! All I hear is words. Don't talk of love. SHOW ME!"