Occupy Your World

Recently, I heard a speaker expressing a bit of frustration with the church. She pointed out that secular organizations seem to be outpacing us in humanitarian efforts and was sounding an alarm for us to stand up and take our rightful place. Had I been in the service with her, I would have shot her a hearty, “Amen,” because I totally agree. Shouldn’t we be leading the charge in humanitarian aid around the globe? If the answer is “yes,” my next question is, why aren’t we?

I suppose there could be as many answers to that question as there are believers in the world. Lack of resources. Lack of time. Lack of interest. I guess it makes more sense to focus less on the why and more on just getting it done. And, in order to begin getting it done, most of us will need to know exactly where to start.

I was talking to a good friend of mine about this and we came to a couple of conclusions. First, being aware of what’s going on in the world is hugely important, and second, our  impact and engagement locally is necessary if we are to make a global impact. In other words, the best place for us to start occupying our world is not necessarily with an international fund or some wide-scale campaign. Sure, those need to be on our list of goals, but if we’re looking for a place to start, awareness and local involvement are steps we can easily take. The danger, of course, is in stopping there and never moving ahead. It’s that kind of complacency that will make us less and less relevant and allow those secular organizations to leave us in their dust.

I’ll end with this: The dots on the map above show how widespread the Occupy Wall Street movement became in just a month. Imagine if those dots somehow translated to the places believers were intentionally occupying and impacting in the same time span. We’d have to go from chanting “We are the 33%” to “We are taking over the world!” Now wouldn’t that be something? Let’s make it happen.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, `Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. `For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'” Matthew 25:34-36