My dear child, there is a special message God wrote on your heart. It’s bubbling up inside, let it spill out. Let your words scatter like seeds to the edges of the earth. Do you hear it? That’s the sound of your voice singing an anthem of love in service to others. Hear how it joins with many different voices singing in harmony to the God who calls you together to radically change the world. Now is the time: let God’s melody guide you as you go forth with a voice for peace.
As participants in the 2023 FaithX trips, we will focus on the theme of “Voices for Peace” to explore how we can use our voices and gifts to promote peace both within our communities and across our world.
Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it’s written for us. God wants the combination of God’s steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir – not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Creator of our Master Jesus!
Romans 15: 1-6 (The Message)