Is it what we did or didn’t do?
By Gil Hanke
Recently, some of the commission staff members attended an annual event, sponsored by the YWCA. The purpose of the event was to increase public awareness and support for their work in the area of domestic violence.
You may be familiar with similar events in your area. People are invited to a free breakfast where they hear great speakers and are asked to make a donation.
What draws people to this event is the subject, the speakers and the timing (it begins at 8 a.m. and lasts 90 minutes).
One speaker was a victim of domestic violence; others were staff or senior volunteers or sponsors. The keynoter was Scott Hamilton, the gold medal Olympian, author and humanitarian.
Scott is a man of action, discipline and courage who has faced multiple life-threatening illnesses and survived. I thought he was an unusual pick to deliver the keynote address, and I think he would agree. He is not known for work with those who have experienced gender-based violence. He did not talk about what he had done, but gave us a very personal journey of opportunities where he should have acted and did not.
What guides him are the fruits of the spirit.
Scott described many situations where he was silent or invisible. He was so honest and open, it led all of us to examine where we have failed to be true to the Gospel.
Something happened in Scott’s life that led him to make every effort to be engaged where he had once been silent.
What opportunities will you embrace this week as an active, visible, vibrant disciple? Where in your life are you actively sharing the Gospel and where are you being an “undercover” Christian?
Gil Hanke, general secretary
General Commission on UM Men