Today I choose to reach out. To include others, make them feel welcome, look for the needs of others and to step out of my own comfort zone and reach out to others.
It's really easy to get settled into our comfortable lives with our comfortable friends, in our comfortable routines. As believers we aren't called to a life of comfort. We are called to live a life of love, generosity, service and sacrifice. We need to reach out, make people feel welcomed and love others.
John 13:34-35 says "'A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.'" We can't learn to genuinely reach out if we don't love. We have to desire to love others because we were loved first, so that we can show others that we are children of God.
I love the picture that we see of the fellowship of believers in Acts 2:42-47. "They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and good, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." These verses really made me think about the church today. How can we expect new people to come to church and stay if we don't reach out, if we don't include and if we don't go beyond our comfort zones? We have to sacrifice our comfort so the Lord can add to our numbers.
I have a wonderful husband who has been challenging me to reach out and to be honest I have resisted. Several months ago Kyle told me that we should set aside one night a week to have someone from church over for dinner. When he brought up this idea we had just had Eliza and I was not really in a place were I wanted to have someone over for dinner every week. I felt like I was barely keeping up with things around our house and was hesitant to say the least. Kyle understood and after some time decided to push me again. In all honesty I'm not sure what was holding me back. I love having people over for dinner, but I think that I was feeling on the "outs"myself at church and wasn't really desiring to reach out. I decided that I should support Kyle and make the dinner thing happen. And I am so glad that I did! We have been able to have several different people over and now that the holidays are over, I am looking forward to having more people over. It has been such a blessing to get to know new people at church and I can only hope that us opening up our home will help people feel welcome at church.
It can be a little intimidating to have someone over for dinner that you don't know and it's really easy to just turn to go to friends, but that's against the idea of reaching out! I don't think there's anything wrong with having good friends over for dinner, but it's also important to have a balance and reach out to those you don't know. And I think it goes beyond hosting someone in your home. We have to reach out when we see someone at the store and say hi. It's easy to duck down the other isle and not make eye contact. Or when we are talking with someone on a Sunday morning, we should be aware of who else is around us and who else might want to included. I have learned a lot about including others from my three year old. Parker has a natural part of his personality that is such an includer and his willingness at the young age of three to make sure others feel included is inspiring! I want to be like that, I want to look outside of myself and reach out!
So, today I choose to reach out!
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