Img via http://goo.gl/TF5z8
It’s fun to sift through my Twitter feed, the news sites, the Youtube video, the stuff that’s gone viral this week… it’s really neat to see what has caught people’s attention. What is it that they think is really cool and show some interest in. You have to agree, there are some seriously talented people out there who do some really cool stuff with their imagination and skills.
Notice how the ones that go really viral are the ones where the creators passion just spills out into their chosen media.
As much as I’d like to display an example for you right here, I won’t, because today’s viral video is gone tomorrow. Someone else’s passion will move into the limelight for another day.
But when something you encounter some of these passionate expressions, how does it make you feel? Some will make you feel awe, others happiness, compassion, love, shame, hurt, all sorts of emotions. Some may even move you to action where you’ve just witnessed something that causes you to want to help in some way.
There was a time when the church had that affect on people. A time where people used to be feel all those emotions when they saw what the church was up to. A time when the church lived out its passions in the streets and made a difference in people’s lives and in the world.
I feel like we’ve lost that passion.
I feel like we don’t know what it is we stand for anymore as we become ultra-institutionalized as we try and protect ourselves from what might happen. As if living in a litigious society has scared us into playing it safe and protecting our assets and our people.
Never did the church express more passion in the first century AD. A time when it was persecuted to the fullest for expressing it’s belief in Jesus Christ and taking that passion head-first out into the streets of the world, moved to change the cultural systems which have created a great divide in their society. Separating nations, classes and sexes from each other.
As a society, our passion is not gone. There are thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of people across this world standing up and fighting for what they believe in. There’s Occupy Wall Street where people are seeking fair distribution of wealth and blame for the recent crisis in the United States and around the world. There are people standing up for their rights in Europe and the Middle East, in Africa and South America, and right here in my town as the youth stand up against bullying in our schools by taking to our streets and raising awareness.
There is a revolution starting to take over our world, and the church needs to be involved. The church must stand up for the weak and the vulnerable. The rich can take care of themselves, that is abundantly clear. But who will stand with the outcasts, the forgotten and the neglected?
Jesus commanded us to love God first and to love our neighbours as ourselves.
“Who are our neighbours?” Jesus was asked.
They are the ones we see in our communities. They are the ones we see on the news. They are the ones we hear about in these viral media blitzes.
Yes, the church cannot be all things to all people. But find you passion, find what it is that breaks your heart and moves you to action. Find this and you can be one thing to many people.
It’s a start.