Our new Worship in Action emphasis is underway! David Ray writes about how you can be involved, and why hope is the vital distinctive of Christian ministry:
Sometimes statistics are misleading, like the fact that drivers switching to an insurance company saved money. (Why else would you switch?) Sometimes statistics are irrelevant, like that fact that a baseball player has a better batting average during night games played on Tuesdays in the state of Ohio. But sometimes statistics are startling, and they should move us to action. Check out these statistics from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services 2008 Annual Report. Did you know that in the state of Texas, in 2008…
* 517,573 calls were made to the CPS Abuse Hotline
* 14,295 children were removed from their homes
* 31,058 children were living in foster care
* 4,517 children were adopted out of foster care
* The average adopted child spent 29.5 months in foster care
James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” At first glance these two thoughts might seem disconnected, but there is an important underlying truth at work here.
Many people look at problems that seem so large and say, “What difference can I make? What does it matter what I do?” But that is exactly the kind of attitude that James is warning us against. It’s an attitude that is like polluted, poisoned water and when it gets inside us it affects everything.
The opposite of this kind of cynicism is hope. It caused Paul to write to the Romans, “Be joyful in hope,” (Rom. 12:12) and to remind the Colossians that Christ in them was “the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). What is the hope of glory? The answer is twofold. It’s the hope that we have something real to offer to a suffering world, a reconciliation to the relationship we were meant to have with God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And it’s the hope that someday the suffering and injustice of this world will be set to right by the Righteous Judge.
So what can you do to keep yourself from being polluted by the cynicism of the world around you? You can hope! And what can you do to help look after orphans and widows in their distress? You can extend that hope to the 57 children of South Texas Children’s Home Ministries by participating in our ongoing Worship in Action emphasis. Follow the links to find out more information about our current emphasis and how you can be involved.
