thrive community

There aren’t many television shows I like to watch our regular basis, but one of them is Extreme Home Makeover. About a month ago, the show was about a young man named Bernard McFarland. He’s known in his community as a person who makes a difference. He began an outreach for young boys in the same community where he grew up and currently lives in the neighborhood with his three teenage sons.

His heart and passion was indescribable. The emotion in which he talked about his boys, his community, and the need he sees around him was amazing. It made me want to jump through the television and go help him at that moment. Bernard was doing much with almost nothing. He was living in a dilapidated home, using a broken down Van and a tiny concrete slab for a basketball court to reach dozens of needy kids. But he was making a difference.

When the Extreme Home Makeover team arrived, he met them with great joy and overwhelming tears. As the show revealed what they were doing for him and giving to him, he was thankful at every turn. He would always turn to his boys, hug them and draw them in to let them know that he loved them and that he appreciated this blessing they were to share as a family.

But one thing really stood out to me. As the team inquired as to why he did what he did,Bernard began to share about how his pastor had preached a sermon a long time ago that stuck with him to this very day. The point of the message was this — “lift as you climb.”

“All of this wasn’t about me,” Bernard said. “I was just doing what was in my heart.”

The phrase “lift as you climb” was a seed that had taken root deep in his heart, transforming the way he lived. This phrase should also be the statement that is rooted in the heart of everyone who follows Jesus.

It’s not about us. It’s about what passed through us. It’s about us learning how to give away everything that God blesses us with so that others may find life through the life we have discovered.

I believe that God wants everyone of us to be successful and make a difference in this world. But personal success alone is not the ultimate fulfillment of God’s mission for us here. It involves using the things that God has given us to help others become successful.

Climb. It’s a journey of discovering who we are and what we were put on this planet to do.

Lift. It’s a journey of helping others discover who they are and what they were put on this planet to do.

You see, none of us have gotten to where we are on our own. It’s taken dozens, if not hundreds of people to offer their influence, wisdom, time to help us be who we are today. All of us are given the ability to climb, not because we have everything figured out on our own, but because other people have invested in our lives and helped us find our identity and discover our purpose. It’s easy for us to be distracted by “self” and have our eyes solely focused on our own success and destination while forgetting the greater purpose of God for our life is not for our own success, but that we may be used to help bring others to fulfill God’s dream for their lives as well.

So the question remains, who are you bringing with you? Who are you lifting? Who are you investing in to help them discover and fulfill their God-given dreams?

For Bernard, success is about taking as many people with him as he can to help them discover and achieve a better life. I believe that’s the heart of Jesus to. As a Christ follower and a leader in my community, I’m discovering more and more every day that there are so many people who have no one to point the way, to show them how to live and believe in them for who God made them to be. I’ve been asking God to help me remember that in seeking wisdom, it’s not just so that I can be seen as wise, it so that I may use that wisdom to pass on to others. I know that my life experiences are not just for my enjoyment and growth but for me to pass what I’ve learned along to those whom God has given me to help along their journey.

What do you think?