Three words come to mind when I think about my life, work, and  ministry ….

1. Mindful

2. Creative

3. Action

These are simple words but I think they encapsulate my approach. When living life and working with causes, every person and every mission has a deep significant meaning. So to engage with people and causes I think one needs to first be mindful about their approached. Weather it is hunger, education, homelessness, or faith…most any cause carries deep heart connections with people – and people generally don’t volunteer for causes that don’t touch their hearts.

In order to communicate with people and about causes I believe there needs to be creativity. A cause and especially people are never cut and dry. Causes are complicated issues that are usually hard to communicate, especially because they encapsulate the complexities of people. We can try to simplify a cause and pear it down to a few issues and campaigns but at the end of the day there are always unanswered questions and no simple solutions. In order to help a community address a cause, creative thinking needs to be implemented in order to help others understand issues and genuinely invite people to volunteer and give. A cut and dry approach rarely works. At the end of the day addressing people and causes isn’t a business that can simply be addressed with a business model, it is a mission, that takes a deep sense of perseverance, empathy, and creativity.

We can all find ourselves at some point sitting around and talking about how we wish the world was different… Yes we can in fact spend a lot of time talking and in many instances rant and complain. But this approach will never free us from worry. We can’t assume the issues of life are problems for someone else to solve. Plus nothing proves to practically still the heart and release tension more in the midst of anxiety and frustration than to get up and take action! Like I said, it is good to think mindfully about the causes that touch your heart; to research them, talk with others who may know more, and allow empathy to enter your heart; but then there comes a time of overflow that must be released or we become discouraged and apathetic to the enormity of the problem. Action no matter how small can invoke transformation in our hearts and in the world.

Mindful :: Creative :: Action