I believe in God! I believe He created everything and everything was created with a purpose.

It was this statement that I pondered on while I was away in Las Vegas last week. We go down annually for an International Beauty Show that is held in Vegas. My husband and I own a salon so that is why we travel to a Beauty show every year. We love going down, we love the weather, and we love the magnificence that is Vegas. The lights, the shopping, the beautiful and over the top buildings that have been crafted in such excellence, the ability to get anything you want made available at your fingertips, and the customer service. Vegas is quite literally mind-blowing and really it’s overwhelming. As far as the business world goes, it is very much a well oiled machine. You know there is much behind the scenes work that goes on that you don’t get to see, but it really is an over the top and well run business that goes on there. I forget that part of Vegas every year, but when I get there I find myself to be star struck by the lights and lost in some sort of Vegas crazed trance.

We were travelling with friends, and one night we decided to take the bus down to the old strip, Freemont Street. We usually travel in taxis but tonight we figured we would be frugal with our money (to save more money for our shopping excursions) and take the bus. We soon were regretting this decision as we had been on the bus for an hour and were no where close to our destination. The bus would move a half a block and then stop, let a ton of people on and off and then continue another half a block. I guess it was a good thing or maybe a ‘blessing in disguise’ as I had a chance to drive very slowly down the entire strip and “people watch.”

I saw thousands of people as the bus drove down the strip. There were very well dressed people in all the high-end designer brands, barely dressed people lol, very wealthy people, very poor people, homeless people, extremely intoxicated people, street performers, call girls and I could go on. All races, all walks of life, from all different places and I couldn’t help but think about their lives. What brought them here? Who are they? Where do they work? What kind of heartbreak have they been through? What secrets do they have that eat them up inside? Then I wondered who is reaching out to them? Who loves them? Is there anyone? Do they know love?

As we were in that moment of what we thought was a very poor bus riding decision, I began to feel my heart break for these thousands of people I was driving past ever so slowly. Maybe God had me take a moment on my trip to “slow” down and show me what He sees. All of these people, all different walks of life, hurts and wounds, all with stories, and some or maybe ALL were searching for a purpose.

The thing is that God created each person with a purpose; no one was made by mistake. I thought of that verse from Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

At the moment I was looking at each of those people, so was He. He was looking on at them seeing their purpose and seeing what He created them to be. He had designed a future for them that was so beautiful and so full of hope, and as my heart was breaking, so was His, but so much more than mine.
I continually would look on at the homeless people in Vegas, the people who everyone would walk by, and know that he/she was created by God with a purpose and to do great things. Maybe somewhere along the way, they had lost their hope, or maybe the wealthy person walking down the strip felt just as homeless on the inside even though everything appeared neat and clean on the outside. Maybe they as well had lost their hope.

As I began to think of things, the verse from Isaiah 6:8 popped in my head. It says, “ And then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Who can I send as a messenger to the people? Who will go for us? And I replied, Here I am Lord, Send Me!”

Suddenly this became the cry of my heart but just as sudden as that feeling came I became overwhelmed with the questions and the fear of ‘how’.

I began to think:
So what then, how does one begin to tell every single person that they have purpose and how do you help them find it? I remember as we drove past those people on the Strip, thinking I couldn’t possibly reach out to all these people on my own. Even if I could, what would I do? I was suddenly overwhelmed by the thought of how many people there are that I could help.
Have you ever walked into a room in your house and it was in udder disarray. You open the door and there were tons of clutter and a big mess and your first reaction was to shut the door and deal with it later because you didn’t know where to begin? That’s a little bit of how I felt… like why even try? There are way too many hurting people who need to be loved, how do I even start? Where do I even start?

Those were my thoughts and as I was thinking on these things another thought came to me, “How about you just start!” Yes, just like that room that seems like it could never be cleaned up, it always helped when I would just start.

My thoughts then moved to the city I live in. You know even the very city I live was created with a purpose. This city has a purpose all on its own. I can see many problems wrong with our city, but why do I just talk about the city and then shut the door on it because it seems like too big of a mess to clean up. If I would just start! If YOU would just start! If WE would just start!

God created us to Love and be Loved. That is one of our purposes. We read a lot of great quotes that talk about loving and reaching out. We talk about it and we agree with it. We `like`the quotes on Facebook that refer to love.  I guess my question to myself is, “Have I started?” Then my question to you is, “Have you started?” We don’t need to wait for some sign from the universe to tell us its time, we have already been told in Mark 16:15, to GO into all the world and bring the good news. First word there was, GO! Ha-ha, that means START!
So lets step up to that start line, and begin to run this race.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hebrews 12:1-2
12 So since we stand surrounded by all those who have gone before, an enormous cloud of witnesses, let us drop every extra weight, every sin that clings to us and slackens our pace, and let us run with endurance the long race set before us.
We may feel alone, but we aren’t. We are surrounded by an army of witnesses. They have run the race of faith and finished well. It is now our turn.
2 Now stay focused on Jesus, who designed and perfected our faith. He endured the cross and ignored the shame of that death because He focused on the joy that was set before Him; and now He is seated beside God on the throne, a place of honor.