What's Your Nation?

Needless to say, Adam was really genuine.

He told us a story of his nation, his ‘people group', and how he allowed the faith that infected his life to infect those around him.  Essentially, an inner-city high school steeped in sex, drugs, gangs, and violence was impacted with Kingdom through the doing of this single guy and a group of his friends.  Each day they walked into their school building they spoke ‘peace' into it.  They wanted nothing more than the Kingdom to be seen everywhere.  By the end of the first school year, all of the sex, drugs, gangs, and violence were on the decline and by the time Adam graduated, it was nearly non-existent. 

All of this happened just because a single teenager decided to activate his faith.

Looking through Scripture it's easy to notice that a lot of people had their nation that they ministered to.  Moses had Israel, Jesus had the ‘lost sheep of Israel', Peter ministered to the Jews, and Paul we all know ministered to the Gentiles.  It's incredible to see that everyone had their own nation and many times it's made me wonder what my nation is, what my particular people group is going to be. 

Oftentimes I've asked God for the streets, for the homeless people because I just want to dedicate myself to something, to someone to minister to.  I probably ask for the homeless because I feel as if I'm better off than them (it's always harder to minister to those better off than ourselves).  Other times I've asked for the heart of the American Church, for the literal Body of Christ here in the States.  I just want to know what my particular nation is.  Adam obviously knew his involved the student body at his high school (and now, his college).

And maybe we should ask ourselves, what is our nation?  What particular people group are we supposed to minister to?  Where are we to go and activate our own faith?

We need to recognize in our own lives the places that God is calling us to go – and then go there.  We need to raise our hand and volunteer ourselves.  If we want to see the people in our office from 9-5 transformed, perhaps we need to start speaking peace or raising our voice when company integrity is questioned.  If we want to see the homeless dude on the street corner fed, maybe we need to put our hand to the plow and find the food for him.

I see ethnicity as more than just my race or the color of my skin.  I see ethnicity as people groups.  White, African, Asian, blah, blah, blah?  I think in different terms: high school teenagers, Koch Industry employees, Westboro Baptist Church parishioners, homeless people, fisherman, etc.  I know this really messes with things because then it means we belong to different groups of people, but that's fine.  My last name is Snyder but it doesn't mean that I'm 100% Dutch.  And just because I don't go to Westboro Baptist doesn't mean I can't minister to that congregation.  Paul wasn't exactly considered a Gentile...

I'm saying all of this for one purpose: what's it going to take for us to activate our faith in the place that we feel called?  Where is the Lord calling you to minister and will you let your faith in God intersect with it?