Love Your Sister

I am in awe of his determination

Acts 21:17-26

Reference: Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. (Acts 21:19 NIV)

Explore: Samuel Johnson is a guy in his 30s who has already lived a full life. He came to fame in Australia through acting in a number of popular TV dramas and through using his distinctive voice in voice overs for a number of significant companies.

However, this year he has taken his life on a different journey. After learning that his beloved sister was going to die from cancer, he committed to raise a substantial amount of money towards cancer research. The best way to do that, of course, was to unicycle around Australia!!

To learn how to unicycle is one thing, but our land is no small blip on the earth’s surface! Already, at the time of writing this blog, he has been unicycling for over 100 days and he’s not even half way round. However, the money he is raising, and the inspiration he is displaying, is out of this world.

As I follow his ‘Love Your Sister‘ journey on his Facebook page I am in awe of his determination. Every day he has to travel a remarkable amount of kilometres to stay on track. He is open and honest as he speaks about his sister being his driving force and the challenge he faces every day to keep going.

His Facebook page is not one of boasting or self-importance. It is an inspiration to everyone back in their homes and their work places at the power one person can have. Someone even left a comment to Samuel saying that any time they are feeling down they go to his page to get the inspiration they need to keep going.

It’s a power story of love and determination and it’s beautiful that it can be shared so widely through social media.

Application: When the apostle Paul was travelling around he also had a great love and determination – to tell people about Jesus. Unfortunately, he didn’t have Facebook back then to keep in touch with all the people he met and the churches he planted. So every time he met with a group of people he had previously impacted, he told them of what was happening in other places through his ministry. This retelling of events inspired the people to keep up their faith and to stay committed to the difficult path before them.

We can now, 2000 years later, read of Paul’s ministry and be inspired. I’m not sure whether Samuel’s story will continue to be told in 2000 years, but I can see the impact it is having today, just like Paul’s had back in his day.

We can be inspiring like that too. If we are open and honest in our faith journey, and willing to step outside our comfort zone for the God we wholeheartedly believe in, that I can guarantee that our story will impact others.

Prayer: Lord, You have given us the ability to make a change to our world. Thank You for those people who came into our lives who are making that journey. May they, and the people from the bible who have gone before us, inspire us to think outside the box and make a positive difference in Your world today. Amen.

What is your story?

Listen to Linda’s interview with Samuel Johnson – Love Your Sister

Acts, challenge, dedication, inspiration, mission, Paul, story