Friday, November 20th, 2009

If you could put your mission in life in one simple, short statement that consists of one or two words what would it be? I wrestled with this question for years and especially in 2008, wondering what to do with my life and what my calling was? Then one day a crazy thought came to my mind–Why not put a personal statement on my license plate that proclaimed the message I wanted to send to the world? I thought of 7 letter phrases for a few months and “Shout It” seemed to resonate again and again in my mind as if God was try to telling me something. As it turns out—He was…months went by and I continued to live my life doing the same old routine; every once in a while the phrase, “Shout It” would come back to me. Then I went through a very dramatic car accident on Easter(2009) and that was a big wake up call. Shortly after, on April 21 of this year(2009), I had one of the worst days of my life that pushed me to my very limit. My job was becoming more than I could handle, I had tons of homework for school to do that was weighing on my mind, and I had severe muscle pain in my chest. After work, I was able to get rid of the pain in my chest with some medication(and it hasn’t returned since) and then I made the decision that I couldn’t continue to live this way—something had to change. And it had to happen–right now! I finally surrendered to God’s will for my life and made the phrase, “Shout It”, my personal mission statement.  The very next day, I got another crazy idea. Why not make the phrase, “Shout It” an acrostic with each letter covering a key principle in the Christian life? Within a few hours I had created the basis of the entire SHOUT IT mission statement and the entire project began! And what I dubbed, “The Dream”, was born!  

              Here is the seven principles of SHOUT IT that I came up with: Stand Up, Holiness, Outrageous, Unite, Thankfulness, Integrity, and Tell Them. I have never changed these principles from that day and the more time has gone on the more I’m convinced they correspond to the Christian walk. The message of SHOUT IT is a simple, yet powerful call to live a life of purpose, love, conviction, and truth. SHOUT IT begins and ends with TRUTH. Discovering what truth is, what we believe in, why we believe what we believe, and most importantly living out those beliefs into our daily lives. When we live out the truth, we essentially become the Truth. Become like Christ. This is our primary calling in life. I believe the single greatest reason why the church isn’t reaching the world, loving others, and living with  purpose is because we have come to accept the world’s lies on what to believe about who we are, why we’re here, and who God is. It’s a three-step process: “Know the Truth. Live the Truth. Be the Truth.” 

          A question we need to ask ourselves is this: Why is there so much chaos, confusion, and hate in the world? I believe one of the biggest reasons is that the church is too focused on rules, entertainment, traditions, and ultimately themselves instead of being the hands and feet of Christ. The other big reason, I believe, is that we give God a small portion of our lives, instead of every single aspect of it. We view our faith as a duty, instead of a lifestyle that needs to be shown and witnessed. We want to know how to be saved and then go on living our lives the way we want to… instead of what God wants from us, which is—everything!

          Over the past 7 months(April 2009-November 2009) I’ve done a ton of research on different aspects of the Christian walk and I believe the SHOUT IT mission statement stands by these principles. Over the next several months, I will write on a variety of topics covering many of these issues, topics, and problems that we are currently facing. By the way–my license plate is now inscribed “SHOUT IT”! It is a costant visual reminder of  my life’s mission statment!  Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving. God Bless.