The Big Room 2 - Yes to adventure

Earlier on we saw a very moving video about some of the work that Compassion, the organisation Scott Todd works for, do across the world, through child sponsorship. See the video here:

This is quite a hard one to blog after the fact, mainly because a lot of what Scott said was in stories. However he did tell us that 1.4 billion people across the world live in poverty. That's over 20%! He also told us that if you ask the poor if poverty can be brought to an end they say yes, as do atheists. Yet Christians, the people who are supposed to live in eternal hope of salvation, when asked the question are more likely to be circumspect with their answer, at best! And Scott believes that part of that is to do with a misunderstanding of Matt 26:11 "The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me", that this has been used to sweep the idea of poverty under the carpet.


Scott then referred to Isaiah 58, pointing to how the passage points to the need for a deep, personal commitment between our actions and our beliefs. And then asked what it would take for the remaining 26% of the world that is currently in poverty to be removed from it. Scott pointed out that we are co-workers with God on Earth, that with Him anything is possible!


His final comments were that God reaches us at the right time, in the right place and in just the right way and that God blesses the simple acts of kindness. The first one on it's own is a challenge and a half. How many of us worry about whether God will show up to something we are doing? The second is also challenging, but in a different way as it means we need to step outside of our comfort zones and actually do something.


It's hard to say what the specifics of the challenge are from this blog, mainly because the stories that Scott told us were about times where he had stepped out and done something. But the overall theme of saying "Yes to adventure" was definitely throughout. God wants us to step out into the unknown because it means that we rely upon Him more. And when we do this we will tend to find that God works that much more powerfully and our meagre offerings are blessed many times over. But we should always remember that the size or number of things that we do does not matter. God blesses people who give from their heart, He blesses when we give not because we have to but because we want to.


So the question sitting there to be answered is this:
What can you give? What does your heart long to do?