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Saturday, August 27, 2005
Is This It?
I read the autobiography of Bob Geldof. Well, it's SIR Bob Geldof now. Most people have no idea who he is.
See, I had a cassette tape (most of you have no idea what that is) of a punk music group called The Boomtown Rats back in the 80's. He was their lead singer...they weren't very good.
Anyway, long story short, he winds up on a trip to Ethiopia in the early 80's and was moved to do something to help alleviate the extreme poverty and famine that moved him to tears. He had an idea: Get his friends in the music business to come together, write a song, sell the record, and give the money to relief efforts in that nation. He didn't know many, but the ones he knew happened to know others who were pretty popular, and the idea was a smashing success in Europe.
Some artists repeated the process in America and money was pouring in and awareness raised. Then Bob had a brilliant idea. A fundraising concert on both continents, running all day on TV and with a toll-free number where people could see the biggest bands in the world all sharing the same stage and give money, too.
And it was everything they hoped it would be...even with all the logistics that made it nightmarish. In fact, The Boomtown Rats opened the show (which opened in Europe) and then flew to Philadelphia on the Concorde in time to see the end of that show.
At the end of the day, Sir Bob was sitting on the edge of the stage, looking out over the departing crowd a bit overwhelmed by the reality that a little punk singer had influenced millions worldwide to do SOMETHING for Africa's problems.
He was feeling pretty good about himself until an American college-kid in the front row (the last to leave) asked him, "Yo, dude, is THAT it?"
He laughed out loud. All that hard work and money raised and there was still something MORE the people wanted...
And that's the reality of your spiritual gift 1 Corinthians 12: 27--31 (from The Message),
"You are Christ's body--that's who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your 'part' mean anything. You're familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his body:
apostles
prophets
teachers
miracle workers
healers
helpers
organizers
those who pray in tongues.
But it's obvious by now, isn't it, that Christ's church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It's not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called 'important' parts.
But now I want to lay out a far better way for you."
We all have a role to play in the Body as well...but that's not IT?
There's more.
We have to exercise our gifts with LOVE. None of it is any good unless we have LOVE for God and others. Even a punk rock singer can affect the world using his contacts and abilities...and others still know there's gotta be MORE. You can use your gifts to the maximum effort and there's still more.
So, for today, how has someone used their spiritual gift in LOVE and affected YOUR life?
Brent 5:58 AM
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