Living Radically For God

I’m sensing a thread from God today. He’s really laid social justice on my heart lately and I keep bumping into story after story about serving the poor and living radically for Jesus.

This morning I mentioned that to one of my accountability partners and he said, “You know…you don’t need to necessarily associate social justice with the poor. What about the work you are doing in your workplace?”

I will admit that I am incredibly blessed to be able to practice my faith so freely in the workplace. It’s actually encouraged here so I belong to a men’s Bible study, organize a monthly get together with other members of my church, and pray weekly with a group of prayer warriors over lunch. Today the epiphany hit me while I was praying.

Last week, I attended the Carnival of Creativity, primarily because Mitch Matthews, inventor of the game “Q”, was speaking about, well…creativity. One thing that was mentioned that really resonated with me was this quote:

The opposite of creativity is criticism, skepticism and cynicism.

I will admit that at times we have that dark cloud following us around here at work. And I am responsible for dispelling that spirit, to preach the Gospel always and at times use words.

Sometimes you need to be careful about what you pray for because God will definitely answer your prayers in His own way. Lately it seems like I’ve been muttering, “Help me to live radically for you Jesus.” And He usually responds in ways that take me out of my comfort zone. I normally look back at those times and smile at what He taught me as a result.

During my Principal prayer time today, I was praying for an employee who is considering leaving her husband because of his insecurities and because she’s fallen out of love with him. I was reflecting on this situation when I remembered an incident from this morning’s drive. A driver next to me was enveloped with his hand held device and managed to change lanes unknowingly. Granted, this is during morning rush hour on the interstate…smart, huh?

My immediate thought this morning was to chuckle as God spoke, “When we are encompassed with our daily distractions and lose focus on God, eventually we end up wondering how we wound up in our current situation.”

This anonymous colleague of mine is probably wondering the same thing. And while I was praying on this, God revealed to me something kind of interesting. I heard Him say, “Ask if the husband has any friends. And invite him to the men’s ministry at Hope where he can get connected with God and with other men who love God.”

I guess when I asked God to help me live radically for Him, sometimes it means rolling my sleeves up at work. As I pondered this and reflected upon today's events and the creativity conference, I wrote down these words on my prayer requests...

"I want to make a positive impact on everyone I meet."