Let Me Pray About It: The Excuse We Use to NOT Act

Harkening back to an earlier post regarding justice and our responsibilities as worship leaders, I wanted to make all my readers aware of a MAJOR need and heart breaking crisis.  And I'm not asking you to make the typical Christian excuse of "I'll pray about it and see if that's where the Lord leads", cuz lets be honest, that's a total load of garbage.  Nowhere in the God's word did He ever say to stop and pray about serving the poor.  He asks us to pray, sure, but that prayer was NEVER meant to be an exit door for us to get out of taking action.

1 John 3:17-18

"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth."

I'm not coming at this as if I'm above anyone here, I'm absolutely guilty of "the cop out prayer", I just want us to open our eyes together and stop making excuses for not making our love a thing of action.  So why am I so fired up about this today?  Well let me tell you...

In co-operation with the #WithSyria Coalition of 130 non-governmental organizations, scientists based at Wuhan University in China analyzed satellite images and have found that, since 2011, the number of lights visible over Syria has fallen 83%.  Yeah, lets read that again.  83% of the lights are out in Syria.

The reality here folks is that Syrian refugees now make up the largest refugee population on the planet.  Here is a little perspective on the massive impact this crisis is having.

Some of the worst humanitarian disasters over the past 20 years:

The Indian Ocean Tsunami impacted 5 million people.
The Rwanda Genocide impacted 4.3 million people.
The Haiti Earthquake impacted 3.5 million people.
Hurricane Katrina impacted 1.7 million people.

The Syria Crisis has impacted 12.2 million people.

Actual Impact of Some of the Worst Humanitarian Disasters in the Past Twenty Years - See more at: http://www.worldvision.org/press-release/new-poll-finds-most-americans-still-unaware-severity-syria-crisis#sthash.lMOlitBR.dpuf

Syria crisis: Impacted 12.2 million people

Indian Ocean tsunami: Impacted 5 million peopleExternal Link

Rwanda genocide: Impacted 4.3 million peopleExternal Link

Haiti earthquake: Impacted 3.5 million peopleExternal Link

Hurricane Katrina: Impacted 1.7 million peopleExternal Link

- See more at: http://www.worldvision.org/press-release/new-poll-finds-most-americans-still-unaware-severity-syria-crisis#sthash.lMOlitBR.dpuf

Syria crisis: Impacted 12.2 million people

Indian Ocean tsunami: Impacted 5 million peopleExternal Link

Rwanda genocide: Impacted 4.3 million peopleExternal Link

Haiti earthquake: Impacted 3.5 million peopleExternal Link

Hurricane Katrina: Impacted 1.7 million peopleExternal Link

- See more at: http://www.worldvision.org/press-release/new-poll-finds-most-americans-still-unaware-severity-syria-crisis#sthash.lMOlitBR.dpuf

Syria crisis: Impacted 12.2 million people

Indian Ocean tsunami: Impacted 5 million peopleExternal Link

Rwanda genocide: Impacted 4.3 million peopleExternal Link

Haiti earthquake: Impacted 3.5 million peopleExternal Link

Hurricane Katrina: Impacted 1.7 million peopleExternal Link

- See more at: http://www.worldvision.org/press-release/new-poll-finds-most-americans-still-unaware-severity-syria-crisis#sthash.lMOlitBR.dpuf

So what is it going to take for us, the ones who call ourselves followers of Jesus, to take action?  When I see the faces of these children, when I hear their broken dreams, I see the face of my daughter.

I see her in their shoes fighting for her life, losing what childhood she's had.  If these children were mine, how would I respond then?  What if this was your son or daughter? 

I'm asking you to put your love in to action.  I'm asking you to forget about politics.  Forget about any hangup or religious view and just see people.  See children who are desperate and dying.

The time to act is now.  Don't stop to pray about acting, just act.




Put your love in to action here...

Platform: Social Justice and The Worship Leader

Action.  It's that simple.
Being a worship leader is so much more than leading people in 1 fast song and 2 slow songs, or 3 slow songs if the spirit is REALLY moving.  Being a leader means living out your worship daily in non-music settings.
One of the most valuable tools I've learned to use is my "platform".  As a leader on stage every week I've gained a pretty significant amount of face time with people.  I love this fact, not because I get attention or any kind of spotlight, I would quite honestly be totally content not being on a stage at all, but because I can now use this clout, or whatever you want to call it, to connect with people and inspire them to take action.  When I was gigging around the Northwest I used to network with all kinds of artists, some who've really taken off now, and I would see them broadcast the work a charity they were interested in was doing.  I was very blessed to have played shows with some of these artists on multiple occasions and saw people take action and respond to the artist's prompting at every single one of those shows.  They were using their platform to broadcast and inspire.
Now I'm not suggesting you get up and interrupt your worship set to give a short speech on why the world needs clean water (although I am rather passionate about this subject... Check this out...) but I am saying that you need to recognize the platform you've been given and the potential impact you could make.
What this all boils down too is a responsibility to take action.  As worship leaders our lives should reflect the heart of our father (as every Jesus lover's should). 

Here is a fantastic article from The Verge Network that I think I you guys may find interesting.

I’ve always had a hard time wrapping my mind around the idea of “justice.” In our culture, social justice has become a bit of a buzz word and it’s hard to figure out how we as Christians respond to overwhelming and tragic issues of injustice in our world. Growing up, I had a very narrow view of “justice.” Immediately my mind went to things like judges, prisons, and the TV show “COPS.” But a broader view of justice, and our role to be people pursuing justice, is essential to the life of the Christian leader.   Read More...