Recent Scripture & Thoughts

Matthew 6: 1"Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.  2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

If I were being transparent with you, I’ve thought about this passage a lot as it relates to what I do at NLFW.

At the heart of our organization it’s not about us. It’s deeply rooted in loving our neighbors well and making sure we’re serving the most vulnerable among us in the name of Christ. That we step into the suffering of someone that God cares about deeply to be a light in their dark place and stay there for as long as it takes for their light to be lit.

But on the other hand, we’re an organization just like any other organization when it comes to getting things done organizational. We promote our work to get more people to join in the efforts. We market and worry about how we craft the stories to be compelling enough to convince them to serve. It’s service in the name of Christ.

Luckily, when sharing the vision of NLFW and getting people set up on using the website I get to tell them that I don’t need to know if you’ve served or how many hours you spent. I want to hear the stories, but I don’t have to. It’s between them and God.

So, I’m not sure where I stand on that for now, but I need to keep those scriptures in mind as I do the organization stuff.