more doing.

It all started Wednesday morning in chapel. Our speaker ended his sermon be telling a little story that went like this:

There once was a farmer and his wife that had a farm. She discovered there was a mouse, so the next time she went to the grocery store, she picked up a mouse trap. Upon her arrival home, she knocked over the bag, so the trap fell out. The little mouse saw it and ran from the room. First, he went to the barn to talk to the snake. He asked the snake for help, but the snake just laughed and said, "Sorry, that's not my problem." So, then he went to the chicken and asked for her help. But, just like the snake, she turned him away, saying, "Sorry, that's your problem." Finally, the little mouse turned to the cow for help. But the cow said, "I'm much too big to be getting my hoofs caught in a trap. That's your problem." Right after that, a loud snap and then a scream was heard. The snake had gotten caught in the trap. When the farmer's wife went to see what had gotten caught, she assumed it was the mouse and picked it up. When she did so, the snake bit her. The farmer rushed his wife to the hospital, but they were too late and she died. A couple days later, he had everyone over to the farm for a meal after the funeral. It was a cold day outside and everyone felt dreary, so they cooked up some chicken soup. When they ran out of that, they decided to make some beef stew. THE END.

It's a silly, depressing little story, I know. But the moral of the story is that we never know when someone else's problem will become our problem.

Then, tonight at worship, we discussed the concept of "less dreaming, more doing". I know that I say things on here all the time about how I wish the world was different. I wish that everyone had clean drinking water. I wish that people didn't try to trap little girls into the sex trade. I wish that nobody went hungry tonight. I have all of these great big wishes and dreams. But, in the end, they don't matter until I do something. I can say how things need to change over and over again. I can read books on it. But, until I take the step (the initiative) and do something, it's worthless. Less dreaming, more doing. That's a concept I can get behind. I'm still not sure how this is all going to play out. I don't know what it's going to look like. I don't really know where God's leading me to on this matter, yet. But, I'm committing to do a little less dreaming and a lot more doing on here.  Yeah, the fact that kids down the street from my dorm are hungry tonight is not my problem (After all, I dined on the fine dining of Ramen. Typical college kid.). But, because I call myself a Christian and so I believe that precious child is my brother or sister, it is my problem.And I don't need to just sit around saying "Oh. Look. He's hungry." We're called to get out there, roll our sleeves up, and do something about it. It may not be serving lunch at a soup kitchen. It may be working in lobbying for a cause. I may not be called to move to Africa, but maybe I am supposed to help raise support to a missionary can live over there. And I don't need to just dream about it...I need to just do it.

So, while I don't have a definitive answer on this one and I don't know what it looks like...I'm putting it out there before I go to sleep and forget it all (because that totally happens sometimes). What is God telling you to stop dreaming about and start doing? Think about it. Where might he be leading you? And I'll be doing the same. :)