HIS CHALLENGE

The Social Media sites have gone viral with the recent Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) “Ice Bucket Challenge.”  It has at the least put ALS on the map for awareness to this disease and raised in excess of $100 million for research.  I received an ALS challenge and was reluctant at first but considering the sources of the challenge — a Christian Brother, Chris, and my wife, Dawn (whose uncle died of ALS) — I put myself under the ice cold bucket and accepted the challenge.

I’ve heard it said, "I would rather attempt something great and fail than attempt nothing and succeed." What challenge is God placing in your heart? Don't sit back and wait for someone else to make a difference when you can be that person. The world doesn't need more armchair quarterbacks; the world needs people like you to get in the arena and give it everything you can! 

President Theodore Roosevelt once said:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who does actually try to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”*

Our Lord through the Holy Spirit places challenges in believer's hearts. Most often the challenges are mighty, life-changing challenges with long-term positive results. Take your challenge, then take the words of Paul in Philippians 4:13 when you’re in the midst of your challenge, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength," and make a difference in this world by accepting His Challenge! 

*Ted W. Engstrom, The Pursuit of Excellence (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982), p. 57.

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