Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Inspire!

Can you feel God tugging at your heart? Easter is a moment that opens my heart. I am inspired by resurrection to see anew.  An example of this vision inspired me last night and opened my memory to more inspiration.


A little boy ran up to a homeless man on the street corner last night as I was headed to a wonderful dinner with a group of Christian leaders. (It is not this photo, I found this a stock image of inspiration online - but looked just like this!) It was clear the boy's heart was open as he went rushing to put money in a cup.

Then I remembered images of young and old from our community preparing beds and meals for the homeless we house in our weekly shelter. A flood of caring acts filled my memory and my heart. Just as I shared in worship on Easter, I am inspired by our congregation!

Such inspiration is in start contrast to the events of a world that is killing the spirit and numbing our senses. What can we do?  I am inspired by the story of a boy who was discouraged by a man from throwing starfish back into the sea - it would just send them back again. Undaunted, the boy held up another starfish, looked at the man and said, "That may be," said the boy, "but here is one I can save today."


If only we could always have such child-like determination and hope!  But there are many in our world who grow weary from the constant waves of misery crashing against our lives. How can we confront an expression that has developed in recent years: "compassion fatigue."

One of the conversations I had over dinner last night engaged the challenge of equipping and encouraging new generations of leaders who will inspire the world with good. The next generation of adults who currently work to change our world are very idealistic in many new and practical ways that engage specific projects all around the world. I see new kinds of community growing through friendships fostered at work, school, intentional living communities, and various forms of networking.

What I do not see growing is a sustaining base for this altruism that will last a lifetime. This is a gift that I believe congregations have to offer the world.  It is a gift that our congregation seeks to offer each and every day of the week. We inspire!

(Elmore Nickelberry, at left in 1968, he was then a Memphis sanitation worker on strike when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was slain in Memphis at the Lorraine Motel. His son Terence recently displayed a slogan made famous by the 1968 sanitation strike. by Carl Juste / Miami Herald Staff)
Yet some real challenge remains for me and for our congregation in a suburb of privilege.  That challenge is present on street-corners in Chicago just as it should be in our hearts every day.  How can we shift the tide of inhumanity afflicting our world?

A congregation does more than countless acts of charity.  We ground our lives in the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the one who taught parables in order to "tease our mind into active thought."  The boy engaging the beggar on the street corner brought to mind Jesus' parable about Lazarus and the rich man. Is the gospel engaging our imagination?  Is our creative soul inspired?

I remember that Dr. King was slain in 1968 while posing challenging questions about the relative worth and dignity of everyone living and working in America. These questions continue to haunt our society as rifts between rich and poor, black, white, and every color grow ever more stark and alarming. I suppose if the answers were simple, they would have been accomplished by now.  But here is a prayer that I make unto God as I return to the desk after Easter morning:  I pray for inspiration - inspiration for action.



The empty cross stands above our church as both invitation and instigation. The image may seem as quaint and classic as a Rockwell painting, but we are an incubator of action. This is the charge and challenge for every Christian congregation.  We must be a source of inspiration for a better humanity.

So go inspire someone.  We can help you start with a wide range of caring acts. But carry that spirit into your daily routines and conversations.  Commit your life to the cause of Christ and let the Holy Spirit flood your heart to change and inspire the world.

Christ is Risen - Let Us Show the World what it Means!

Brian