One of the lessons I learned while growing up was, you always leave a place better than you found it. This goes for rental properties, fellowship meals, relationships, churches, companies, reunions, hotel rooms. No matter where you go, we were taught to always leave a place better that you found it.

A second thing we were taught was if you see trash on the ground, don’t step over it, pick it up and throw it away. No one is watching, this isn’t for accolades, it is part of being community. It did not matter if it was my towel on the ground in the bathroom, or my water bottle laying in the street, if I saw it I was taught to pick it up and throw it away.

Community is about helping not only when you’re told or when it is in your gifting, it is seeing a need and filling; noticing trash and picking it up. People want microphones, platforms, pulpits, positions, titles, offices with their name on the door, but they have never stooped down and picked up trash they did not drop.

The kingdom of God watches everything we do, for stewardship is a lifestyle we live and character we have. I was thinking about the seismic changes that are happening in the world, the nations, the church, the family, the city, everywhere, change, change and more change is happening. As I thought about the church, I heard the Lord say, make sure you leave the old system better than you found it, for the new system is being innagurated.

Ezra 3 “All the people gave a great shout of praise to the LORD, because the foundation of the house of the LORD was laid. But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise. And the sound was heard far away.”

Some will weep, others will shout for joy, so we must be sensitive to the truth that for some the changes coming will grieve them, and honoring them as they weep is just as important as shouting for joy, for God has done a new thing and nothing will be the same again. Www.apostolicresourcecenter.org