I know many of you are familiar with the book Love Does by Bob Goff – I came across this section in it the other day, and it hit me pretty hard – thought it was worth sharing…
“I want to pick a fight because I want someone else’s suffering to matter more to me than my own comfort and convenience. I want to slug it out where I can make a meaningful difference. God says He wants us to battle injustice, to look out for orphans and widows, to give sacrificially. And anyone who gets distracted with “this point” or “that opinion” is tagging out of the real skirmish. God wants us to get some skin in the game and to help make a tangible difference.
“I can’t make a real need matter to me by just listening to the story, visiting the website, collecting information, or wearing the bracelet about it. I need to pick the fight myself, to call it out. Then, most important of all, I need to run barefoot toward it. Why barefoot? Because it’s holy ground. Why run? Because time is short, and none of us have as much runway as we think we do. And then I want to fight, because that’s how we can make a difference. That’s what love does.
“Sure, it’s easier to pick an opinion than it is to pick a fight. It’s also easier to pick an organization or a jersey and just identify with a fight than it is to actually go pick one – to commit to it, to call it out, and to take a swing. Picking a fight isn’t neat either. It’s messy, it’s time consuming, it’s painful, and it’s costly. It sounds an awful lot like the kind of fight Jesus took on for us when he called out death for us and won.”
(Wow.)
