Serious.

Do you believe you are fortunate? Are you lucky, or blessed?

And if so, what makes your life so good - money, belongings, relationships, work, family, love, faith?

There are moments when I feel like some of the greatest aspects of life can be overlooked, under-valued and even presented as somewhat overly serious, complex and boring. Sometimes I am in class and though the topic is wonderful, the delivery is mind-numbingly dull. Education does not need to be boring! Let the students be active and engaged. We need to break out of the tradition of the long winded lecture, and share stories, create practical examples and connect passion, with data, opportunity and engagement.

And sharing of the gospel can be incredibly serious and dry. My understanding of the gospel that it is life-changingly good. Yet, in life we seem to get bogged down at times in tradition, concepts, arguments, explanations, critiques of one another and forget to share the love, joy and hope that our faith is based upon.

Let's not be so serious!

If your life is good, and blessed and rich and wonderful, then talk about that. I don't want to just see what I don't have in life. If all we talked about was doom and gloom in the world, what motivates us to act or enables us to be effective? There is a lot more to the global story than what the news reports to us. We need good news stories. We must engage with the stories of one another. We need to know that 'the poor' are individuals - with names and faces. And have passions, hopes, families, ideas, hobbies, opinions and lives that we can learn from. We each have the capacity to make a difference in the world. Make the most of your journey, maximise your opportunities, and live out your passions, hopes and faith. I urge you to cross paths and engage with people who are different to you.

If I looked at my garden and all I saw was the weeds, I would be missing out on seeing all the wonderful vegetables growing! But also if all I did was read books about gardening, but never got my hands dirty, I would have no vegetables to eat! Get yourself prepared and then act. Let us build our hope, our passion for life and our faith - and from the overflow of this goodness in our lives we will impact and effect one another positively.

Awesome.