Get real. Alot of people may take that as an insult, an offence those people are probably thinking 'who is this guy telling me to get real?..really who does he think he is?' and others are probably thinking 'I don't need to get real. I'm already sorted, I'm fine, I've got nothing to worry about this doesn't apply to me' well to those people I understand exactly how you feel, you feel slightly angry, upset, you feel like your pride has been tampered with. You know why I know how you feel? It's because I felt the exact same way when I first heard what I'm about to share with you, I felt all those things and probably more. This is from a series of talks/messages from my senior leader at Today's Community Church, Wigan, UK Dave Belfield, it's a series that's still going to this day and probably will continue for a while. The Get Real series was based on observations and realisations that Dave had, he saw something wrong and told us about it. I'm not going to lie, it hurt the first time I heard it, but it started something inside of me, a chain reaction if you would, I began to see things in a different light, realise what the world actually looks like, it inspired me to start this blog. Most of the series so far has been based on passion, or rather the lack of it, and that's where I'm going to talk from, I'll be talking about the lack of passion in everyday life, whether it be in work situations, family situations or even national situations. Being British (sorry to any non-Brits reading this) we're supposed to be passionate, courageous and a force to be reckoned with kind of nation, a nation that if someone stood up to us we'd just growl and they'd sit back down. Now I'm not saying we're the kind of people that let other people walk all over us, we're not. But we have lost that passion, the passion to take on anyone in our way and win. You only have to look back 50-60 years ago to see that passion at it's best, during the second world war towns and cities across the UK were bombed and civilian's were killed night after night but that didn't stop our determination to win, and because of that we won. But enough history lessons, we as a nation have lost that passion, the drive that wants to make us the best we can be, the passion to go out there everyday, do the job at hand and go further than necessary to make Britain great. People today would rather go to work, do the job, come home and watch TV. That's not passion, there's nothing wrong with that believe me I'm the first person who would happily sit down and watch an entire TV series back to back but it's having that drive to come home and instead of switching on the TV going out, going to your neighbours house and connecting with them, getting to know them, becoming part of their life, not just living next door to them. Now your probably thinking here 'has he been hired by the government to promote the Big Society campaign?' no I havn't I'm just telling you what I think.The first point of passion is connection is the basis to any good nieghbourhood/ society/ family/ school/ college/ workplace etc. because for the simple fact of that people cannot function without connection, when was the last time you went to a resteruant, sat down got a menu, chose what you want and when the waitor comes over to take your order you just sit there and expect him to know what you want, of course your not, it requires connection, it requires you telling the waitor what it is you want and how you like it. Connection isn't easy and it isn't hard, it isn't easy because it means stepping out of your comfort zones and making an effort, something that most people hate to do, it requires you to step out against the social normalities and actually go and talk to some one. Facebook announced early last week that it had hit over 30 million active users in the UK alone which ammounts to nearly 50% of the population and Facebook also have 500 million users world wide, and it is all based on connection to other people, finding out stuff you didn't know about someone, finding old friends and new friends. It has become a internet phenomenon and is currently the highest profiting website ever. And it all started from something you can do on a walk to the shops (and by that I don't mean poke random people as you go and get some bread, you can be arrested for that). There is passion through connection, it takes passion to go and deliberatly connect to someone.
Inspired by Dave Belfield (@davebelfield Twitter)
