By Chuck Blaisdell for Week of Compassion
John Lennon’s now iconic song asks us to “Imagine” – but his call is tinged with sadness and even hopelessness for our truly being able to realize a more just, a more abundant, a more peaceful world for each and every person. But we, who know the Good News of the Gospel, know that such imagining is not simply a wistful dream; we know what the Apostle Paul knew when he wrote those closing lines to the Ephesian church, where he praised God as the one Who, indeed, “by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
For Paul is right: God’s power is at work within us, and that power is the power to imagine and help make a better world a reality for all God’s children. The theme of this year’s Week of Compassion Special Offering – received in most churches on Feb. 18 or 25 – is “More Than We Can Imagine.” And God’s power has been – and will continue to be! – at work through your gifts in more ways than you can imagine: through refugees finding safe haven, through those battered by hurricanes and fearsome fires who have been given some of the help they need to begin to put their lives back together, through development projects making clean and safe water available, and so much more. Your gifts work “around the world, around the year” to bring the love and hope of God in more ways than indeed we can imagine.
Complete resources – including videos, children’s resources, bulletin inserts, and a Resource Guide with sermon starters, worship materials, and moments for mission – for this vital Special Offering can be found here.