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We live in such a critical age. Why is it so deeply engrained in us to make ourselves the standard by which we evaluate other people? I think the answer to that question lies in our self-centered default. If we are the centre of our lives, we evaluate others by the filter of ourself. The more full of myself I am, the more I become God’s gift to the world that everyone should endeavor to be like. 

Think for a minute about how much of human history, good and bad, has been impacted by a relatively small group of people. Constantine, Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Hitler, Billy Graham, Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., for example, all have one simple thing in common. They are all leaders. Admittedly, this particular list is a sphere of leadership relatively few of us will ever operate in. However, the principle still applies regardless of how many people you lead. Whether you lead a classroom of students or a nation, the weight is heavy but the opportunity is the stuff that literally makes history. 

I am ever more convinced that words don’t actually speak. Words come easy. It’s easy to talk about compassion, generosity, sacrifice and empathy. We all love those ideas. I don’t know of anyone, faith-motivated or not, who would argue with the importance of compassion and the need for generosity and sacrificial living. While everyone would agree with those concepts, not everyone lives them. For Christ-followers, our first gift to the world is not our words (no matter how true they may be), but our actions.

#ActionsSpeak

With every year that passes, it seems that I have an ever increasing distaste for anything religious and it’s being replaced by a simple passion to become more like Jesus. And without a doubt, 2017 brought an embarrassment of what has historically been my religious home base. Take a couple of minutes and watch one of those Youtube compilations of babies sucking lemons. That’s often how I felt when I watched people from my religious tribe interviewed in the news this past year. The intense focus on the role of religion in politics, particularly this past year, has made it even more difficult to bare the label “Christian.”