A Ripple Effect
from Tim Tebow on Youversion
I’ll never forget the day in 2013 when my dad called me from overseas and told me he had just rescued four young girls from traffickers. He was preaching at an underground pastor’s conference in a remote country where Christians are persecuted. When the conference was over, he heard there were four girls about to be sold. He took out all the money he had in his wallet, and with that cash, he purchased the freedom of those girls.
I knew that day my life would change because I entered a new fight. I said, “Dad, I don’t know exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re going to do something.” Our foundation built a safe home as fast as we could to take care of those four girls. And then the next four. And the next four. And we’re still going.
The day my dad purchased the freedom of those four girls was pivotal. It opened my eyes. I believe once your eyes are open to something like that, you can never unsee what you’ve seen. Dad made a split-second decision to step into the fight, and immediately our foundation stepped in with him. We weren’t totally sure of what we were doing and didn’t have all the answers to our questions, but that mission-driven moment, when Dad chose to advocate for girls he had never even met, was the beginning of a ripple effect still in motion today.
This is what happens when we live mission-possible lives: we create a cycle of good, of service, of compassion, and of action that inspires others to continue. As the writer of Hebrews says, we “motivate one another to acts of love and good works” (Hebrews 10:24)
Mission living means being motivated by something other than yourself. It’s scary. It’s also pretty exciting. It can be unpredictable (but in a good way). It will also require submitting your preferences to God, and sometimes that doesn’t feel very good or doesn’t make you look as favorable as you’d like. That is when trusting God becomes crucial. If you’ve made the decision to trust Him, He gives you the mission and makes it possible. Trust that He’s got better plans for your life than you do.
When have you seen one person’s choice to follow God’s calling cause others to lean into their calling more?
For nothing will be impossible with God.
Luke 1:37
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Heb. 10:24 ESV
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