Implementing the Master plan

Last week-end in Vårberg (my small community in Stockholm) I had a wonderful opportunity to Serve. We of Elim Church of Skärholmen had the opportunity to serve the community of Vårberg by washing windows at the mall, weeding the flowerbeds and cleaning up around the children’s playground. (check out the pictures by my links called “Working in Vårberg”)

Recently Skärholmen and Vårberg in particular have been getting bad publicity! The newspapers have been writing articles about how...difficult this area of Stockholm is. They say it is not safe and that there is a lot of violence here. Even the people of Vårberg have run their community down by talking bad about it and standing by and watching as things go the wrong way.

Now I must admit that there are surely nicer places to live than Vårberg. Stockholm is a big city and as all big cities there are some areas that are nicer than others. But, hey, Vårberg is a very unique area that offers opportunities that cannot be equaled just anywhere. I am talking about the multicultural aspect about Vårberg that is fascinating. Now, I am not saying that this multicultural aspect was planned and that politicians all decided that Vårberg would be created as a multicultural community that would offer possibilities to all. But, whether it was planned or not it does exist now and we need to make the most of it.

So, last weekend we had the opportunity to serve our community. What a privilege to have an opportunity to serve. I live in Vårberg and this is my community by choice. I don’t want to sit around and watch it go down. I want to be a part of its growth and development. This desire within me is not unique to me. Jesus speaks about serving others in all that we do and say. Over and over again in the Scriptures I read verses about serving others. Jesus himself did not come to serve Him self but he came to love and serve others. He laid the foundation of all that I do when He said, “love your neighbor as yourself”. Very few people in this world hate themselves. Most people go to the opposite extreme and in their actions they show that they love themselves a little too much. Jesus came to earth to give him self to others in all that He did. His ultimate act of giving to others was His sacrificial offering of Himself in our place when He died for the sins of all mankind.

Jesus laid the foundation. This foundation rests upon the principle of each of us giving ourselves and loving others. This foundation is cemented in the loving our neighbors just as we love ourselves. Now God looks to us to continue to build on the foundation that He laid. We don’t die for the sins of the world, Jesus did that as only He could do, and He also arose from the dead as a sign that all has been made right and now we can have a relationship with the living God. So our job is to build on this foundation of love by serving others and in doing so we become a light in a dark world.

In a town meeting recently I heard an elderly person complain about lights in the center of Vårberg that are not working as they should. They said that there needs to be better lighting so that we have a safer place to live. By serving others in Vårberg we bring light to a dark place. Yes, we need better lighting in the city center, but even more important we need more people that want to serve the community of Vårberg and be light that shines upon it.