Devotion for the Week of May 7, 2007

A few days ago I was looking at some old comic strip books such as Calvin and Hobbes, Peanuts, Garfield, and The Far Side.

One of the Garfield cartoons I saw has him resting, eyes half closed, in his bed thinking to himself: "One of my pet peeves is people who never finish what they start." The next panel shows him with his eyes wide open and a smile on his face saying, "I do not happen to be one of those people." The last panel shows him completely under the bed covers saying, "My philosophy is, 'Never start anything.'"

"Never start anything," cannot be our philosophy as God's people. We must care about our world because God cares. We must care about people because God cares. We must care about those in need because God cares. God cared enough about us to send a savior, His son, Jesus Christ.

We must care too. We must care enough to make our church and community stronger. We must care enough to make the world a better place to live. We are call by God to care.
What is God calling you to do? Are you being called to help a fellow student who is struggling with his or her education? Are you being called to be a Sunday School teacher? Are you being called to mentor young adults as they begin their careers? Are you being called to coach sports and teach the true meaning of teamwork and sportsmanship? Are you being called to organize a neighborhood watch program or cleanup day?

If you and I don't do it, who will? God is counting you and me. We also can count on God to give us the resources we need to accomplish God's will. These resources include the gifts and passions we have received through the grace of God. We have been given all our resources, ourselves, our time, our talents and our possessions for the betterment of the Kingdom of God. Even the education we receive comes about because of the resources God has given us.

By grace you have been saved - and raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God - not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. (Ephesians 2: 4b-10)