Friday, October 31, 2008

Touching Base! Part 12

Inspire Me

Who in your life inspires you? What person challenges you to raise the bar, push the envelope, and go the extra mile? Without people like that in our lives, I am afraid we will settle for less, coast along and under deliver! Scripture often highlights the value of others around us:

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” (Eccles. 4:9-10)

One place in life where I see a lot of inspiring and perspiring going on is the club where I work out. Go into the work-out area and you are inspired by the RMC students’ dedication to early morning work-outs, Other fitness buffs are pumping iron, riding bikes, running on treadmills (and going nowhere fast) while sweat, the evidence of one’s labour, pours forth! Walk by the double gyms and you can hear shoes squeaking on the wood surface floor as volleyball and basketball teams practice, hoping for perfection on game day. Then meander over to the indoor track and there you will find students taking the Shuttle Run (also known as “the beep”) test. The beep test is where one has to run back and forth between two lines faster and faster, beating the “beep” as the beep goes off faster and faster. The last person standing is, I guess, the new Rocky and insanely exhausted!

This is what I call inspiring! Watching these men and women motivates me to push a little harder and commit a little more often to getting to the gym. I think the church can work the same way. Since arriving, I have been inspired by the many who call Bethel their home. I have been inspired by:

- The senior who prays and how their prayer reflects the depth of their relationship with God that has come through decades of following Christ.

- Students who are living out their faith on the campus they attend. In many ways they are on the front lines.

- A number of individuals who are wrestling with some of the trappings of North American Christianity and desiring to see the church set free to reach its full redemptive potential.

- The person who speaks to me passionately about their involvement with the homeless, the drug addict, the prostitute.

- Being present in the body of Christ on Sunday mornings and witnessing the many passionate worshippers that fill the building.

- The extreme dedication of the many too the local church, people who have full time day jobs but reserve some of their best energies and thinking for the local church!

Thanks for inspiring me!

Mark

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