Look all around you and see what is real

Hear what is true and be sure what you feel

Touch someone near you in love if you can

Give all you have and be part of God’s plan

               – from the song Look All Around You by John Fischer

Take action. This song is all about action. God is not a thought. He is not a list of precepts — a statement of beliefs. God is not what we believe; He is Who we believe. We don’t just believe Him or something about Him, we experience Him. We enter into a relationship with Him and He effects everything we do.

Look. Start looking, and we can find Him everywhere. In the eyes of someone in trouble. In the face of a child. In the smile of a pretty woman. In the worn ridges on the cheeks of the homeless. In all the people we see every day, lo and behold, we are looking into the face of God.

Hear. If we start listening we can hear Him speak through the heart of a man pouring out his pain. We can hear Him in the roar of a crowd. We can hear Him in the cry of a baby. We can hear Him in the voice of someone we love, and we can hear Him in the silence.   

Touch. When we touch someone, we are awakening ourselves to His presence. We are touching someone created in God’s image — someone He envisioned before time began. Touch someone and realize you are touching eternity — the only thing this side of heaven that will live on after we are gone.

Give. Give, because it is supported by a spirit of generosity. It’s an attitude of life that comes with humility. When we have hit bottom with a bitter awareness of our own need and our sin — each one of us believing we are the worst of sinners — everything looks up from there. Everything looks brighter. We are filled with gratitude for God’s forgiveness and grace, and that gratitude makes its way into our heart where it turns us all into givers. That is grace turned outward. We genuinely want everyone to have what we have. “Give all you have and be part of God’s plan.”

Who are we touching today?