KickStarter

There comes a time when the little birds need to leave the nest and fly.

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money—not even an extra tunic. Whatever house you enter, stay there, and leave from there. Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They departed and went through the villages, bringing the good news and curing diseases everywhere. Now Herod the ruler heard about all that had taken place, and he was perplexed, because it was said by some that John had been raised from the dead, by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had arisen. Herod said, “John I beheaded; but who is this about whom I hear such things?” And he tried to see him. On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. He took them with him and withdrew privately to a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him; and he welcomed them, and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed to be cured. The day was drawing to a close, and the twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away, so that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside, to lodge and get provisions; for we are here in a deserted place.” But he said to them, “You give them something to eat.” They said, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish—unless we are to go and buy food for all these people.” For there were about five thousand men. And he said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” They did so and made them all sit down. And taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces. - Luke 9:1-17

We tend to view our own lives through a prism of self satisfaction and reward. Look what I have done, we say.  And we take a bow before exiting the stage.  

But what if we looked at our lives and accomplishments as a kickstarter of something bigger than us?

Jesus came to teach twelve and have the twelve teach others.  

When we look at his ministry that way, we see something selfless and self-sacrificing.  Jesus built an organization.  He planted seeds in fertile soil and tended to them until they could bear fruit of their own.

Then he went on his way.

What if we all saw our mission through that lens?

We could see our role as a catalyst of something bigger than ourselves.  What we accomplish, we design to be sustainable without us.

To do that, we have to have faith.  We need to believe in the greater good and strive to achieve that goal, knowing that in our short span, we may not achieve the end result.  But we will start the ball rolling.

I believe the Holy Spirit who Jesus sent to guide us, sets us off on the path in the hope that we will collect disciples of faith, people like us who want to achieve the good things Jesus told us we could do, like cast our demons and cure the sickness in the world.

We may not achieve these things in our lifetime, but if we build a following, a good team that can carry on, we will have created something amazing, something that lasts.

There comes a time when every innovator has to hand over the keys to the shop to someone else, someone who may or may not have the same vision.  

All that innovator can do, as Jesus showed us, is inspire those who take over to go with faith and love.

More to come...