be a doer – Deidra Deandra

Do Something You Don’t Enjoy

I DON’T LIKE AMUSEMENT PARKS

I don’t like roller coasters. I don’t like spinning rides. I don’t like falling rides. This weekend I went to Magic Springs. I don’t like amusement parks.

One of the girls in our youth group invited me and another youth leader to go with her and a group of her friends this weekend to celebrate her 16th birthday. I don’t like amusement parks. Out of my mouth popped an excited “Yes!” but I don’t like amusement parks.

IT WAS SUCH A GREAT TIME! I watched them go on a few and joined in on some of the activities. I don’t like amusement parks, but I sure do love young people. We stood in one line for 2+ hours and it was the greatest time! magic-springs It wasn’t deep Bible talks, but it was real life moments. By the end of the day we were having little one-on-one moments with a few of them and really got the chance to advise them on different situations. Josh Barnett said once as we prepared for a High Point Summer Camp, “If they’re not laughing with you at the beginning of the week, they won’t be crying with you at the end of it.” I watched this play out in just one day. We laughed all day but in them having fun with us, they opened up to us more.

Don’t be waiting around to be a leader at a youth conference, or to catch a young person after a powerful youth group service. Do what they do; be where they’re at! Ezekiel 3:15 says, “I sat where they sat.” I don’t like amusement parks.

Okay With Today

Okay With Today Everybody’s ready for the next phase in their life, the next step, the next season. No one’s as excited about yesterday as they are about tomorrow. We have lunch plans with a co-worker or a dinner date with our spouse. We plan the mess out of our lives and we forget that our time… isn’t ours.

This time we spend on Earth is borrowed time. It isn’t ours and it was never intended to be ours. We are called to make disciples, further the gospel, bring His will from Heaven to Earth, love the sinner and hate the sin, help the widows and care for the orphans, be fishers of men. All of these tasks are a TODAY event. We have today. We have to use it to HIS benefit. Not to make another dollar or up our weights in the gym. While these things are enjoyable and clearly necessary to live a long and healthy life, we can’t let them steal our focus from what we’re really here for… His divine purpose.

He loves us. He knows the ratio of oxygen to nitrogen we need in our air to be able to breathe it. He knows the car we want, the job we would rather have and the number of days we’ll be here to experience all these things. All He asks is to make our days count. While sitting on your couch eating potato chips and surfing the channels isn’t the worst thing you could be doing with your very small amount of time, it isn’t the best thing either.

Get up. Move. Wave to someone. Smile in the direction of…everyone. Show the world around you that there’s more and they can have it. Show a little love today with your time. Make the world a brighter place because YOU are in it. Be okay with being alive today and make the most of it. Show Him to the world and watch Him do the rest.