Who and when?

I heard a friend give a talk based on two separate but connected questions. The questions were:

If not me, who?

If not now, when?

The original source of the questions was a book dealing with motivation. It addressed situations where a group of people were faced with a problem requiring an action from someone. The question gets asked or the circumstances themselves pose the question: ‘Who will do what needs to be done?’ Everybody looks at each other and everyone thinks, ‘Someone else can/will do that!’  But no one does.

How different it would be if everyone in the group asked themselves ‘If not me, who?’ and ‘If not now, when?’ Does that, or some equivalent example, resonate with you? Certainly did for me.

God has posed a question for us: ‘Do we want the salvation He offers? Yes or no?’ If the answer is ‘No’ our next course of action is easy. Do nothing! And keep doing just that.

But what if the answer is ‘Yes please’? A great place to start is with God’s word, His Bible. This verse sums it up:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (NIV)

The rest of the book gives more detail, much more. All we have to do is read it and then ask ourselves those two questions. The answers are ‘Yes it is me’ and ‘Yes it is now!’