Walking in the Spirit

I was at a youth meeting last night and found something to think about. The speaker was speaking on the topic of Evangelism (which is actually ironic because I went to another youth group the night before which spoke on the same topic...and that group is in a city a half an hour away). Well, it didn't take long for me to lose interest in the topic. This is a sad thing to admit, but it's the truth. I've always quickly lost interest when somebody is preaching evangelism. It's a habit I developed in Bible school when I got upset with an Evangelism class.

ANYWAY, the speaker last night referenced to a lot of verses in the book of Acts. One of the references was about the story of Peter and John going to the temple when they come across a lame begger. The begger asked them for money and Peter responded saying, "I don't have money for you, but what I do have I can give to you. Get up, pick up your stuff, and walk." (Revised Sarah-phrased Version) The begger did what Peter said, picking up his stuff and walking off. Well, before Peter received the Holy Spirit in his life, and the Power that comes with the Spirit, he never did anything quite so strange. I mean, we read the story of what happened and think, "wow, what a nice story. Wish I could do that." But really, if you let yourself think about it, what Peter did was very strange.

Imagine this: I am walking with my friend Marjon (or maybe with you, dear reader) to church and I see a person sitting in a wheel-chair by the side of the road. The person has a cup in front of their chair and they're playing an accordian, to the best of their ability. I walk up to the person and tell them I don't have any money with me (very likely that I wouldn't because I always forget to take some to church with me). I then tell them that I do have something that I'd like to give them and tell them to get up and walk. Now, if I did that with you standing next to me, dear reader, I do believe that you wouldn't stand next to me for very long. And if you did, you'd likely not talk to me, or you'd talk about something completely unrelated after a short awkward silence. I mean, after the person got up and walked off, you might look at me a bit funny (not that you don't already do that sometimes), but not much more would be said about it because I had just done something really weird, almost unheard of.

Now here's the thing...what would our lives be like if we decided to live like are walking with the Spirit? What if we stopped talking about walking and just walked? Can you imagine what might happen? I believe that our world would be turned a bit upside down (or would it be more correct if I suggested we'd be turning it right side up?). I believe that we wouldn't have to discuss what evangelism is and how to go about doing it. I believe that we wouldn't be needing missionaries in our countries anymore because we'd be the missionaries.

Hmmm...what do you guys think?