Why I Roar (part 1 of 2)

Am I aggressive or confident?

Intolerant or inspiring?

Opinionated or influencing?

What about the fruit of meekness? What IS meekness anyway?

These questions have plagued me for decades. Never being content to sit on the sidelines merely commenting on cultural decline, I feel a deep, urgent need to affect change:

• 1976: While other 8 year old girls were taking dance lessons, a friend and I bicycled around rural neighborhoods, urging neighbors to vote for protecting widows and property rights.

• 1984: While my friends picked out prom dresses and colleges, I was outside the grounds of the high school parking lot picketing in support of President Reagan's declaration of "The Year of the Bible," in front of flashing news cameras.

• 1990: While my peers enjoyed a respite with their new spouses and careers, I started up political action committees across central Florida.

• 1995: With my newborn son on my hip I traveled through all types of Tampa Bay neighborhoods, petitioning to all citizens to support the shutting down of the infamous pornography institution simply known as, "The Todd".

I could go on, but you get the idea. Not much has changed. When things are upside down I feel compelled, internally pushed forward, to help people seek what is true and good. The challenge is: "What is right?" Put another way: "Who decides what is right?"

Let me be clear. I do not decide what is right. Ever. Yet, there is One who has established a standard.

This standard was passed to the Church.

As the Church,

we are the standard bearer - not the standard maker.

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It is the standard that declares:

"You do not have to live this way."

"You can do more than you imagine."

"Let me show you a better way."

To those entwined in chains of sin, it is a standard of freedom.

To those in a pit of rejection, it is a standard of relationship with their Creator Father.

To those weakened with burdens, it is a standard of resurrection empowerment.

The standard is the roar of truth and needs to be heard. It is the roar of truth from the One who commissioned the Church with His message. It is the roar of truth that has the power. It is not the one carrying the message that has the power. It is the message that is the power. Because I know that deliverance is in the roar of truth, I will love others enough to not be silenced.

To Be Continued...