Here Am I, Send Me

While hanging out with friends and discussing changes in our church and in our community, I was reminded about how resistant people are toward change. Talking about change unfurls feathers and causes stress. This impulsive reaction ignores the fact that most of the things we were doing that night were a result of changes. We were having fun with a game that was made in 1989. We were watching a show made in 2007 to spur discussion on equipment that wasn’t around thirty years ago. And yet in the midst of enjoying all these new things, all these changes, the idea that change was bad was still being expressed.

Many of the things that we truly enjoy were started in the last ten to twenty years. I go down to the park with my children and enjoy the playground. That was a change that became reality in October 2005. A change that came about from the result of the hard work of many. Then I look at the library. That didn’t open up until 1991. Nearly everything we enjoy in our community was a change at one time that probably faced resistance and required a lot of hard work. I look around and I see others working hard on changes that will impact the future. From planting new trees in the park to replace the dying ash trees to the people hard at work on the youth center to a new program at the school, tomorrow will be a better place because of the hard work of people who are bringing about change today.

Maybe change would be more palatable if we would sugar-coat the word “change” by calling it “improvements.” Whatever we want to label the concept of making things different tomorrow than they are today, it is all still the same. It is always difficult to bring about. It will always face opposition, but it is always necessary.

What legacy are we going to leave for future generations? I look at the hard work of the people who have come before and made this community the great place it is to live in today. That didn’t just happen by accident. That also didn’t happen without change.

The natural state of things is decay. If left untouched, our towns and churches would slowly dwindle. I look around and miss some things from my childhood. I miss the Ice Cream Depot, Dana providing living wage jobs in our community, and Ray’s Restaurant down on the corner. The sad reality is that a town or a church building can exist long after the life and community has left.

We need to be willing to stand up, work, and bring about the changes needed whether or not we face resistance. We need to ask ourselves what we can do to really make tomorrow a better place in our churches and our community. The question of whether our community and churches are where they are destined to be in the future is predicated on whether we are living in His will today.

Change is going to happen. The question is not whether things will be different tomorrow; it is whether things will be better tomorrow because of the changes happening today. Those changes can be good if we bathe them in prayer, bring others along with us, and work diligently to make our invisible dreams break through into a better reality. Or they will be bad if we ignore the fact that change happens. We are either building up a better tomorrow or watching the hard work of the previous generation decay.

God is at work, prompting people to help shape our community and our churches into what God has destined for them to be. But God is not a dictator. He never forces His will. It is up to us to respond like Isaiah did. The story goes, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8 ESV).

Send me. Not my neighbor. Not the person sitting across the aisle. Send me! That needs to be our reply if we want our community and our churches to be what God wants them to be next year, five years from now, or even twenty years from now. Please join me in saying, “Here am I, send me.”

Who Will?

On March 13, 1964, Kitty Genovese drove home from work, parked her car, and began to make the short walk to her apartment.  All of a sudden she was attacked by Winston Moseley.  Winston stabbed her multiple times but stopped when a neighbor yelled from a window, “Let that girl alone!”  Winston fled the scene, but nobody came to help Kitty.  She tried to get into the building but found herself unable to.  Ten minutes later, Winston Moseley returned to the scene to finish his crime.  He proceeded to rape and kill Kitty Genovese.  Nobody came to help.

This story encouraged psychologists to study the psychological phenomenon named the bystander effect.  It is the idea that the presence of other bystanders decreases the likelihood that an individual will stop and help.  In the case of Kitty Genovese only one person called out of their window and nobody came to help.

In being used by God to bring about His will into our communities, neighborhoods, workplaces, sphere of relationships, and families, we often fall prey to the bystander effect and end up doing everything for ourselves and nothing for God.  We think, “He’s God.  He doesn’t need to use me.”  Or we presume, “John and Jane down the street will do that.”  In the process of making up excuses to not follow God and continue living for ourselves, we miss out on the blessing of bringing God’s reality more fully into our reality.

Maybe you know a neighbor who is lonely.  Your neighbor needs someone to be her friend.  Knowing the situation, you also know that your neighbor has made all the dumb choices and that her loneliness is her own fault.  Being a pragmatist, you know that being a friend takes time and can be an inconvenience.  But someone needs to be your neighbor’s friend.  Who will?

Maybe you go to church outside of the community you live in.  You must realize that your church will not have the mission to make a difference in your community.  They are called by God to make a difference in their community.  That’s why God has put them where they are.  But somebody will have to answer that call to serve in your community.  Who will?

Maybe you know a teen who needs some attention and help so that they don’t make destructive decisions that will cause long-term damage to their life.  Being a realist, you know that you could invest plenty of the time and see no positive results.  But somebody has to take this kid aside and mentor him.  Who will?

We know all sorts of people that are in need of help.  And somebody needs to help them.  Who will?

Who will?  It’s easy to say that someone else will, but I hope that you will.  When God asked, “Who shall I send?  And who will go for us?” Isaiah replied, “Here am I!  Send me.”  May we have the same willingness to do God’s will.  God partners with us to bring about His will.  If we aren’t willing to surrender and bring His will about, then He will wait.  It hurts for Him to wait, but it doesn’t hurt Him.  It hurts us.  May we learn to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, stop selfishly living for ourselves, and start living for others.  By surrendering our lives, we will find ourselves right in the middle of God’s will.  We can be a bystander that makes a difference.