At the beginning of 2010, I wrote in the front of my journal a goal to run a full marathon. At the time, I was scheduled to run the Cowtown Half Marathon in February but was not able to train because of a slight running injury. To make a long story short, after I finished the half marathon, I was rethinking my original goal of running the full!
But time heals all wounds…
And… I decided that if I was going to dedicate myself to the extensive training, I wanted to do it for something bigger than my own sense of accomplishment. I wanted to run in order to raise money for a particular organization. Given our churches three year commitment to ZOE which I’ve written about here before and we have been talking about for several months, that partnership made total sense.
For most, none of this is new. In fact just a few weeks ago during an “update post” I talked about “Miles for Hope” and my plan to run in order to raise money for ZOE.
But there is a little bit more to the story…
I should start by saying that I am very cautious about telling anyone that, “God told me to tell you this…” or “God told me to do this.” Now I certainly believe it happens… Don’t get me wrong… But I think it’s appropriate to approach that with a sense of reverence. I have often found that confirmation of God’s direction in my life only comes after obedience.
The challenge is that sometime obedience demands us to take a step in a direction that we “think” God might be leading but don’t necessarily know with absolutely certainty…
And here is my most recent example…
About a month ago, a number popped into my head. It didn’t really mean much to me at the time but over the course of month it has begun to take shape as a goal that I feel like God has placed on my heart. The burden of “going public” with that goal has been growing for several weeks. Here’s a few instances of feeling a sense of “conviction” to share with you.
- Scott Ferrell, the director of our traditional worship arts ministry and the mastermind behind the Carry the Light concert shared during the 7:00 p.m. performance that when he became aware of the needs of orphans in Africa, he felt like he could not drop everything and go to Africa, but he could certainly sing in order to raise awareness and funds for ZOE.
- As I shared yesterday, a six year old in our congregation named Chloe cleaned out her piggy bank and brought that money to me to give to the orphans in Africa. Once she heard about ZOE and what we are trying to do to support orphans, she did what she knew she could do. She gave.
Two amazing stories of obediences…
So after months of wrestling with God on this one… Here is mine.
God has laid on my heart to set a goal or raising $10,000 for ZOE through Miles for Hope.
Let me be clear. I don’t have some amazing plan for meeting this goal. It sounds a bit audacious to me which is why I’ve been fighting going public with it for quite some time.
But the burden hasn’t left… and so today I’m taking the first step of obedience… simply sharing with you the dream that I can’t seem to escape…
$10,000 for 1000 orphans in Africa.
If you want to be a part, all you need to do is let me know.
You can email me your “pledge” for Miles for Hope. In doing so, you can make a pledge “per mile” such as $1, $2, $5, etc. Your total would be that amount times 26.2 or you can simply make a pledge in any amount.
Checks can be made out to First United Methodist Church Mansfield. Please list “Miles for Hope” in the memo line.
My wife and I are putting in $160 to get us started.
[In case you are wondering, that's the amount of money I'm saving on haircuts during training!]
Thanks for being a blessing to the kids God has asked us to bless in Rwanda.
