Things Are Happening

In last week's post, I talked about the poverty seminar that Otter Creek had (was going to have, at that point). Something is happening.

If you've read this blog over the last year or so, you know that I've been doing a lot of thinking about what my obligations as a follower of Jesus are to other people. I've started to really get to a point that I feel like there are significant responsibilities to the poor (Matthew 25; Luke 4; etc.). The truth is that while I recognize that fact, I've never felt like I truly have been able to put that thought into action. Part of it is that I'm kind of protective of my "me time." When I get home from work, I don't want to head back out and do something else. I like having my weekends to spend time with my family or doing something enjoyable. The other thing is very simply that poor people make me uncomfortable. I don't know if it's a strange sort of guilt that I feel because I have "things" and they don't or what's going on with that. It just is what it is.

But it's time for me to get over it.

For a long time, I've talked and talked and talked. It's time to put some actions behind my words.

I've become very fortunate in the last six months to get to know Doug Sanders, the Director of Ministries at Otter Creek, quite a bit better. Now, I'll be honest (really honest), when Doug joined, I was a bit leery. Here was a guy coming from the business world into the church world and I was really scared that he was going to bring a business approach to the church (numbers focused). I was very wrong. Doug has caught on fire for the kind of stuff that I and others have been convicted about. But even better, he is putting actions onto words and thoughts that people have really been talking about and directions that people have been moving gradually in.

It's exciting, scary, and I have no idea how all of this is going to turn out. It's in God's hands. Otter Creek is going to start doing some things that I'm excited to see how it turns out. It's going to be hard and it's not always going to be successful and we're probably going to get taken advantage of. But it's how we can show love to people.

I talked a while ago about wanting to be as committed to helping people here in Nashville as I was to the England trip. I hope this is the beginning of that.