Doing Actual Things

Several years ago the AFL ran a marketing campaign aimed at supporting grass roots footy. The idea was to make dares or bets with your mates, with the loser to serve a local club in some way. The genius tagline has stayed with me to this day: “Do something good for the game … by making someone else do something good for the game.”

It’s stayed with me as a tagline not merely for that campaign, but perhaps for the spirit of our age. We want to see change for good. We’d love to see the world become a better place. But most of all, we’d like others to be the ones that make it happen.

Too easily we fool ourselves that awareness-raising is the same as problem-solving. We even use the word ‘activism’ to refer mainly to awareness-raisers rather than problem-solvers. We think the main way to address climate change is to talk about climate change. Christians have certainly thought that the main way to increase mission is to increase talking about mission. And so we raise – and raise and raise and raise – awareness.

But imagine ringing a help-line, and when you finally get through and describe your difficulty, the operator says “Mmm, yes, I can see this is a real issue. I’ll escalate it on our system.” Sounds good for a start. But imagine if that’s all that the helpdesk ever did? Move issues up the priority list?

Highlighting a problem is not the same as addressing it. In fact, one of the great stresses of modern life is that everything is highlighted. We’re surrounded by megaphones shouting how urgent all the problems are all at once. Everything seems escalated and not much is resolved. The only relief we get from thinking about a crisis is when it gets bumped off the news cycle by a bigger, more escalated crisis.

Are you exhausted yet? All creation groans. Maranatha!

The good news is that we serve a God who does actual things. I love the verse in Romans 8: “For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.” The law can state over and over and over again what should happen – but it lacked the power to make it happen. Yet God DID what the aspirations of the law couldn’t: Make a bad tree good. Our God does not merely raise awareness of our shortcomings. He has identified the very heart of the issue and acted to bring resolution.

This is very good news indeed. And it should prick up the ears of all those who are deeply frustrated and longing for actual change. God is building an actual kingdom that will truly last. And we’re invited to build it with Him. We can bring our efforts and focus them into doing perhaps-small but actual things that are lasting and truly meaningful.

It’s true that some of our efforts will involve talking. There’s certainly a place for godly advocacy. But here’s the vital difference, whether your calling is talking or serving or caring or leading or digging holes: Real ministry seeks and receives God’s real leading and real empowering for real transformation. ‘Unless the LORD builds the house, the workers labour in vain.’ Let’s ask the God who does real things what real things we can do to help. And then do something that’s actually good for the game.

Thanks so much to all who have supported Crossover through the Australian Baptist Easter Offering. Later-in-the-year contributions from churches and individuals are very welcome as an investment in Helping Australian Baptists Share Jesus. See crossover.org.au/offering