Pivot Points

Talk show host and author Glenn Beck refers to big, life-changing moments as "pivot points." These pivot points are times when you begin to change your thoughts, values, goals, actions, etc. I've noticed an increase in the use of the words "paradigm shift" to describe this phenomena...maybe a bit of an overused phrase, but still kind of cool to imagine the total shift of who you are and what you believe and value.

Attending the National Missionary Convention 2008 was one of my pivot points. I feel like I went from just saying that I'm a Christian to deeply analyzing how I show that I'm a Christian. Thinking about verses like Luke 12:33 (Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.), Matthew 25:4 (The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' [See all of Matthew 25:34-45 for expanded context.]) , or James 1:27 (Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.)...these verses require sacrifice and action, not lip-service. One of the convention speakers, Ash Barker (www.unoh.org), lives in a slum in Bangkok with his family...they're giving more than lip-service to their faith. I'm reading his book, Surrender All, and I'm pivoting...