Throwing Tables

Over the past few weeks, God has shown me American culture under new light. The extravagance, waste, segregation, and ignorance of just one event. And all the while 60% of humans on earth are starving. Wait, let me back up a little...

So, God placed it on my heart to start Mission 1.27, a local outreach team to serve those in need. Our first project, roofing a house that ARM (Alabama Rural Ministries) had on file, went pretty well. It cost more and took longer than expected, but her roof is complete and people in AUMC and some classmates from Building Science had the opportunity to serve their neighbor. So then I started to put together another project, trying to work around the football schedule, and we ended up selling parking places in the church parking lot for fundraising Mission 1.27, and the Lord blessed us with funding. The following weekend is when my socks get rocked. The plan is to have a work weekend at SIFAT (mentioned in previous entry - check it out) to work on their campus in Lineville. We would head out Friday afternoon, work Saturday till lunch, and head back to AU early enough to arrive 2 hours before the game. I did not think that there would be a huge issue with working on a home game weekend, but I was wrong.

We had a few show up, and I started thinking in worldly terms. I started thinking quantity over quality. I also started being selfish, wondering why I couldn't have a team that was really popular and everyone wanted to come to. I kept looking at Mission 1.27 as "mine" instead of the Lord's. Basically, the Lord showed me during this work weekend that it is not about me, and that I need to humble myself, and that He will use Mission 1.27 how He wants to.

Next, I started thinking about football: the main reason why many people could not attend. Auburn University and its community spends a ton of money on football - the stadium, employees, equipment, tickets, food, beer, tailgate accessories, extra clothing, etc..... how did this all come to happen? how do you convince an entire culture to love something so much they want to FREQUENTLY spend lots of money on something as simple as SITTING and WATCHING? It baffles me. Why can't we convince that many people to YEARN to serve the Lord, to give to those nearing death because of starvation, to be productive instead of wasteful? Instead we want to lounge in our abundance.

Then I feel convicted to act on it - but how? It's at least 100,000 to 1. Just keep asking people to come make a small sacrifice of working to serve a neighbor? Then comes the crazy part - how do I NOT judge and NOT be prideful? Who am I but a sinner?

Tonight at Bible study we talked about Jesus turning the tables over in the temple when He saw the merchants selling goods within the temple walls. He became frustrated because the people were abusing His Father's house, so He ran off the leaders. But Jesus is perfect and I am not at all - so acting out of anger for me would be nearly impossible to control.

In Philippians 4:11, Paul talks about how he has learned to be content in whatever the circumstance (rich or poor, mansion or prison). This makes since - it strengthens relationships instead of burning bridges. If times are good, great. If times get tough, great. If I go around throwing tailgate tables around how could I ever minister to those people? But at the same time I can't just be lukewarm, sitting there watching a snake corner a mouse and eating him.

Satan has got us fooled! We think that going to football games is more important than serving our Lord - this may not be said out loud but actions speak WAY LOUDER. What if people gave up one home game a year, just one, and served that weekend instead? That is a lot of people going to help out a brother...

So right now I am just stuck - not sure what any of this means for me. Comments would be awesome.