Dear Friends:
How genuine is a love that never shows the beloved those invisible emotions through action? How honestly is an ideal held when it is only expressed through talk, message board comments, and scholarly essays? Can one really say they “preach” the Gospel when all they do is fill a room or a listener with words?
Faith, opinions, belief systems, convictions, things that are essential to life are quite meaningless unless acted upon. James, the brother of Jesus, wrote:
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17 ESV, emphasis added.)
Action is what gives abstract concepts life. When we act otherwise we fool ourselves (and definitely do not fool those around us). We should not hold ideas and beliefs simply for profile-fillers, conversation starters or even debate-continuers. If we think we truly believe in something…we must do it. Not only will those around us begin to listen, respect also often follows.
Authenticity is what binds all humanity together. We can be nothing besides what we are and what we strive to become. God has a plan, but we are the ones to make our ideas living, real. We are measured by our outward actions, not our inward thought processes.
We can change our hair, clothes, weight, and attitude yet still be shells of people who grasp at empty beliefs and opinions. We are shadows until we translate our thoughts into action.
Now let us throw off what holds us back and act on what we believe. This may be the most difficult thing in our lives to accomplish, and it may take whole lifetimes, yet without doing this we will not truly live.
Let us never choose to be shadows.
Peace and Love,
~Sky

