Defining the ECHO...part 2

I've been out of town for the last week (NC & SC), so it has been hard to keep up with the blog. I decided to break it down into 4 parts, so no one has to read one really huge update. It's kinda like my favorite kind of books: short chapters helps the reading go by faster.

C - Courageous Leadership
"Courage is doing what's right, even when it's hard." We live in a culture that is filled with indifference and moral compromise. We must choose to stand up and do what is right, even when it's not popular or cool.

The choices that we make today will determine the people that we will become tomorrow - along with our habits, priorities, sins, etc. We need to make sure that we are making the right kinds of choices in order to insure that we are becoming the right kind of person/leader. I have come to the conclusion that culture, by nature, always follows something or someone. People are watching our lives to see if we are going to blend in with everyone else, or step out and lead. They are looking for leaders to follow - people to show them how to live and what things are important.

Which will you be? Do you have the courage to say no to your friends when they want to do something that goes against your values or makes you feel uncomfortable? Can you stand against the culture, against the majority, and do what you know is right? Or do you just go along with the crowd and pretend like nothing is wrong? You are either a part of the solution or you're apart of the problem - there is no middle ground.

Defining the ECHO

Now that I have officially preached what it means to live the echo, I can now publicly post what the letters stand for. I purposely did not include it in the last post, just incase someone might would have actually read about it before I got the chance to preach it (i'm weird like that).

E - Engage Life
"Every man dies, but not every man truly lives." Too often we treat life as something we just need to exist through instead of actually engaging in. Life is way too short to let opportunities, dreams, and experiences pass us by. As Christians, we haven't just been promised life, but life more abundantly - and we, of all people, should be taking advantage of the full life that God has promised us. To do otherwise, is to neglect a great gift from God. In a world filled with despair, doubt, apathy, and routine - we need to lead by example and really grab a hold of life and LIVE IT!

The words to a popular secular song say,
"If I traded it all,
If I gave it all away for one thing.
Just for one thing.
If I sorted it out,
If I knew all about this one thing.
Wouldn't that be something."

The life that God gives us is the one thing that is worth trading everything else for. The only way to truly experience life is by letting go of everything else. We were not meant to live mundane, average lives - we were meant to live life to the absolute fullest.