Let Me Do It (01/18/2024)

Last evening, I had the privilege and enjoyment of teaching a class of 6th graders about the sacraments. Toward the end of class, I decided to switch methods and do an activity. I chose “Create A Person” (it is like the old game of Hangman but much more positive theologically speaking). I put up the blanks for a word and within a couple of minutes of suggesting letters, the correct answer was shouted out. Then, suddenly, as I was erasing the first word, a student appeared at my side. “Let me do it, please. Let me do a word.”

I had to stop and smile. How I have longed for the students to come to the “let me do it” phase of discipleship, you know where they have watched another live their discipleship and they seek to pick up the mantle of discipleship and serve also. That is the second biggest reason I do this, teaching faith formation. The first is to bring Christ to others. And it follows that the second would be to bring others to Christ.

I recall the ads a few years back about “paying it forward” where one person’s act of kindness generated the desire in another to act kindly, too. I love it when I look around me in the world and see the actions of one generating the desire in another to live what they believe as well. Life is like that. Sermons are good, but examples are better.

It was just a word game at the end of class, but it was a bright moment on a long, frigid day that gave me hope. I found myself praying last evening for the youth in class that all of them, knowing Jesus, would come to the realization that they are also called to live Jesus. Our discipleship is not a passive endeavor but rather an active one – love lived out loud, visibly, through our actions.

As we continue our journeys of faith, let us continue to live our faith out loud and hope that others will catch it. Let us be people of action for Christ, not just people of words. Let us seek to serve our LORD daily through the way we live, the way we love. May we be instruments of the LORD’s divine design of salvation.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.