- The Empire Strikes Back
- We get involved in social action by responding to the call of God to bring a
- taste of heaven to hurting people.
- Selflessly, we are motivated to serve God and people in need. In doing so we meet and overcome the challenge to deny personal gain and to lay down our lives.
- Yet, despite our determination otherwise, the self is not so easily
- defeated. Though we may feel that we have turned our back on self once andfor all and have unreservedly committed ourselves to serving God's Kingdom,somewhere down the track all too often we start building our own empire.
- Whether it is seeking to create a name for ourselves or constructing a large
- organisation for it's own sake, subtly, our goal has shifted. Though the
- change maybe small the impact is huge. Over time we drift further off course with our purposes replacing God's; our empire being built in the place of God's Kingdom.
- One of the root causes of this empire-building tendency lies in self worth.
- As we spend ourselves on behalf of the needy, a world which doesn't value
- them, equally thinks little of us. Result: we ourselves feel undervalued and
- become tempted to produce something that the world does value and recognise.
- The antidote is to reject the world's values as our 'self-worth', and
- constantly to realign ourselves with our 'God's-worth': the truth is that to
- God both you and those in need are of infinite worth.
- Let us examine ourselves and recommit to building God's kingdom not our own, to be the first to encourage others and daily to take up our cross and
- encourage values that reflect the truth though all the world may laugh at
- it.
- Pete Hawkins
Seed, 14 Vickers House,
Priestley Road
Basingstoke,
Hampshire,
RG24 9RA,
England.
- 01256 363447
- [email protected]