Today I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend when my attention was captured by a funny commercial being played on the TV in the corner. It was a group of business associates on a retreat somewhere in a remote part of a jungle. Suddenly, one of their friends were sucked into a sink hole. He was yelling for help and his arms were flailing all around, but the more he struggled the more he sunk. Yet, the team just stood there. The boss immediately began discussing how they should formulate a committee to discuss this problem and how they should deal with the situation. As the rest of the team stood around, some scratched their heads, some nodded approvingly at the boss, but one young man saw a rope on another’s backpack and decided to pull the man to safety. He threw it over a large branch and dropped it to the sinking friend. Whew…it was suspenseful let me tell you! Then this slogan appeared on the screen…Make It Count.
I took a sip of my glass of water and went, “Hmmm”. It made me think. I thought about our involvement in the church. Why are we involved in the church? Do our parents, grandparents and authority figures make us go? Are we trying to score some points with some girl by pretending to be a Christian? Are we just going through the motions? I believe it’s more than that. Jesus called us “ambassadors”, “salt of the earth”, “disciples” and “witnesses”. What do all these have in common…uh…besides the letter “s”?
They all give us the responsibility to reach out to others as Christ would! The responsibility to make our effort count in the kingdom of God. You have the potential. You have the resources (the Bible, Godly Friends, a Pastor, etc.). You have the power. And above all, you have God! God and you make a majority!
So, we can sit around and talk about how to reach our friends and those struggling in the church…or…we can make every prayer meeting, every service, every class, every outing count! So I challenge you, MAKE IT COUNT!