TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

This sharing hopefully will tinkle our thoughts. Sometimes, each of us feel that "No, never mind, others can do the job, so therefore I'd be better keeping in the background". We prefer to remain in our "comfort zone", so to speak. Then others may think, if I do once, I will be called upon to do it again. So really, if we squabble our minds over all these issues, we will never step forward to "Taking responsibility". It's about saying "Yes". It's about exercising your "willingness" (free will). It's about putting your "Love" into "Action". We fail to see that when those do so much for the group may eventually drop out or stop contributing (as we have seen in other groups) because they just feel that there are others who can contribute but are not doing so. So, People, it's about time we start chipping in and helping out. Some thoughts on "TR"

Taking Responsibility (a)

Each of us will give an account of himself to God.
Romans 14:12 NIV

The Bible says, "Each of us will give an account of himself to God." You say, "Account for what?" The assignment God gave you in life.
The editor of the Bellefontaine Examiner newspaper in Ohio , Gene Marine, sent a new sports reporter to cover a big game. He returned to the paper with no report. "What's the story?" asked Marine. "There is none," replied the reporter. "What?" growled Marine, "and why not?" "Because there was no game," replied the reporter. "No game? What happened?" quizzed the editor. "The stadium collapsed." Unable to believe what he was hearing the editor asked, "Then where's the report on its collapse?" After an awkward silence the reporter replied, "That wasn't my assignment, sir." Needless to say, that was the end of his career.
Jesus shared some attention-getting insights on taking your assignment seriously; He points out that in the final analysis our responsibility is to God, and the rewards that will really matter and last, come from God. Eugene Petersen paraphrases it this way in The Message: "Who is the dependable manager, full of common sense, that the master puts in charge of his staff to feed them well and on time? He is a blessed man if when the master shows up he's doing his job. But if he says to himself, 'The master is certainly taking his time,' begins maltreating the servants and maids, throws parties for his friends, and gets drunk, the master will walk in when he least expects it, give him the thrashing of his life, and put him back in the kitchen peeling potatoes… Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!" (Luke 12:42-48 TM).

Taking Responsibility (b)

I have a great sense of obligation.
Romans 1:14 NLT

Taking responsibility means giving back what was given to you. Paul focused on: (a) making Christ known; (b) building a church that would continue to make Christ known. And he took his responsibility seriously: "I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world… to preach the Good News" (Romans 1:14-15 NLT). That's called "living beyond yourself!" Self-serving people regard their talents and resources as something they own. Serving people see themselves as executors of God's estate; they know they don't own it, they just administer it for Him.
After his time in Nazi concentration camps, Elie Wiesel lived for one thing - to give back to others. He taught as a professor at Boston University , and traveled extensively, sharing the wisdom gained from his life experiences. A question he often asked young people was, "How will you cope with the privileges and obligations society will feel entitled to place on you?" As he tried to guide them he shared his sense of responsibility: "What I receive I must pass on to others. The knowledge that I have must not remain imprisoned in my brain. I owe it to many men and women to do something with it. I feel the need to pay back what was given to me. Call it gratitude… To learn means to accept that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been there before me, and I walk in their footsteps."
Your life is a story. Each day you get to write a new page. So fill those pages with responsibility to God, to others, and to yourself. If you do, in the end you will not be disappointed.