What Will You Do Each Day to Make Our World—and Those Around You–Better?

What if we challenged ourselves to shift our focus from self-improvement to fostering community?

As what all too quickly happens, the New Year pizazz motivates us to make some positive changes or accomplishments with our lives and year ahead, and then quickly dims into tiredness, excuses, or disappointments as only about 8% of us actually keep our resolutions. But what if we were to have a different focus this year which might last the whole year through?

What if we challenged ourselves to shift our focus from self-improvement to fostering community? What if each day this year, we woke up with this challenge running in our veins, motivating us to make a positive impact right in our own homes, neighborhoods, and communities?

And what if this challenge was fueled by a deep love for Jesus and a desire to show and share his love with others?

This is something the Billy Graham Center is all about—showing and sharing the love of Jesus in this broken and hurting world. It’s a place I’m grateful for as both a world hub of evangelism training and a team to be serving on. This team of outstanding professionals love Jesus and desire to make him known as we train and inspire others to carry out the Great Commission, reaching our world with the love of Jesus in winsome and creative ways.

As I was chatting with a close friend recently, I was inspired by one way her family had found to share the love of Jesus in a very creative, yet simple way to those around them. It is through a daily challenge to focus on giving instead of receiving. So often in the busyness of life, we are just trying to get from one activity to the next.

Instead of hoping for all the lights to be green, the closest parking spot to be ours, or the fastest checkout lane to open up as we head to the counter, what if we looked for opportunities to give instead? …

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