During the Christmas Break we had a warm spell that lasted for a couple of days where I live. Prior to this reprieve from the cold, what I didn’t know was that my downspout leading from my garage had clogged full of leaves (apparently good home owners check this during the fall) and had slowed the flow of water. As the weather got colder, the backlog of water froze in my eaves.
For a lot of years I went on record as being somebody who hated Christmas. Hated is probably too strong a word (but then again I like to get reactions out of people, so I probably used it for that reason alone) because I really do love Christmas - at least with regards to what it really is all about. I don’t even really dislike all of the cultural trappings of Christmas (even though most of them we could definitely do without) - I like spending time with family, I like giving gifts and even though publicly I will deny this, I don’t even mind singing Christmas carols from time to time.
This verse has been killing me lately.
Here’s why:
I love myself more than God sometimes.
I may not say it.
I may not even consciously think it.
But my actions show otherwise.
I’ve been faced with multiple decisions in the past few weeks where I realized just how much I love myself more than God.
And if you think about your life, maybe you might see the same thing.
Maybe not though. Maybe you’re sanctified.
I’m not quite there yet. Still on my way.
All I know is that I need to take careful heed to myself; to daily put my heart in check and actively seek to love the Lord more than myself.
It really does change the way I do things.
I need to put God’s will before my own.
I need to put holiness before my sinful desires.
I need to put other people before myself.
I need to care for the orphan, the poor, and the needy in my own midst.
I need to have compassion on people who I wouldn’t normally have a heart for.
I need to see myself and others through God’s eyes.
I need Jesus Christ.
I hope for the next week, this verse eats at your conscience. I hope that it breaks your heart like it did mine. I hope that through this verse, Jesus can turn your heart from yourself to the Living God.
PJ
The hardest place for me to follow Jesus is in the coffee shop.
I had a crazy busy week a few weeks back. I spent an extended weekend (which I loved) at a youth retreat and then came home dawg tired. Something you need to know about youth retreats—they’re not vacations for the youth leaders. Kudos to any volunteer youth leader who keeps doing this. They sacrifice time, energy, money (or a chance to make extra), family time… the list goes on.
So, to keep this short, tongue in cheek—I had less to complain about than Johnny (a youth leader in his 40s) who was back to work the night we got home.
But still, I was dead tired… and upon arriving home, I had one day to recoup before I was back in the saddle.
Wednesday and Thursday flew by as there was so much to do (gotta love those days). It wasn’t until Friday where I realized that I was holding onto something—resentment… anger… a few other emotions that aren’t my best suit.
It wasn’t because I felt overworked (I got over that feeling long ago when I was in college). No. My beef was the fact that I had spent so much time serving people and had no one serving me… that was, until I was in the coffee shop.
I love Tim Hortons. I love the smell. I love the rush of a coffee at anytime in the day. I love the atmosphere. But what I love the most is that I don’t have to do jack all. Are you getting where I’m going here?
The hardest place for me to be a life long servant… is when I’m expecting people to be there for my benefit. And here’s what usually happens when I expect that:
-When someone butts in front of me, I want to shank them in the neck
-When someone takes waaaay to long to order, I want to kick them in the rear.
-When the girl behind the till has to make coffee because of the influx of customers, I begin think less of her.
For all I know, her dad may be dying of cancer. Her mom might have just left home because of an abusive relationship she’s in. The girl behind the till might be pregnant and her boy might have just left her because she chose to keep the baby. And all I can think about is getting what I want and getting out.
Lets look at this a different way.
Jesus Christ came to serve. He taught his disciples how to serve. Never, not even once, have I observed Him telling us that we can have a day off when it comes putting other people before ourselves.
Because you can’t be a Christian 40 hours a week.
You can’t work overtime in the Kingdom and you’re always called to a higher standard.
My challenge to you: know what you’ve signed up to do as a Christian and just giver.
Giver when it’s easy, Giver when it’s tough.
Because that’s how Jesus did it.
-PJ
As I pulled into the Zehrs parking lot, I began to think of how deserving I was to be there.
Food was at my fingertips. I just had to choose the food that I wanted and I could use my card to get it. Shopping carts were there for my convienience. I wouldn’t be caught dead shuffling to carry everything in my arms. Workers were there for my benefit. A man even gave me a cart so i wouldn’t have to waste my enegery pulling it out. Plastic bags are the best invention known to man. I could use it, throw it away and forget about it.
Yep, this was my store.
That was until a guy in line with a high horse attitude caught my attention. He was your typical waterlooian. Suit jacket, dress shirt, casual designer jeans. As the cashier asked how he was, he looked away and didn’t seem to care.
She gave him the bill and without a word, he tapped his card with more money that I could ever afford.
She said “have a nice day” and he turned and walked without acknowledgement.
“what a jerk” I thought as I paid for MY food, put it in MY bags and headed to MY car.
I then headed out to the parkinglot and began to cross at the crosswalk. It was then when the same man in a BMW honked, pointed and glared furiously at me. I was in HIS way.
Little did he know, it was MY crosswalk.
I then got angry, gave him the classic “Wong” stare where if he crossed me again, I’d put him in the ground.
Yep, this is my store and he got in my way.
On the way home, Jesus gave me a play by play of what just happened. The man driving the BMW was in the wrong, but the man walking the crosswalk was in the wrong, too; and all of us here feel so entitled to the cattle on a thousand hills that aren’t even ours.
Truth is, we don’t really own anything. We don’t deserve what we have. And what we do have is simply a gift from above. When we live as if life itself is a gift, we tend to treat people better. We’re thankful for what we have and don’t ask for things we don’t need.
And when we live as if we’re royalty; we get mad because we don’t have, murder those who get in our way and expect everything to be ours. We envy others. We treat them as if they are less than us and frankly, we forget who we really are.
If you’re not a christian today and you’re reading this… congradulations.. you’re off the hook today. Go ahead and point at people like me who give you another reason not to have faith.
But if you are, remember this… you belong to God.
Quit acting like you are entitled to anything. Quit acting like you’re better than anyone else. Quit thinking that you deserve anything in this life.
And if you’re a Chrsitian living in waterloo, I’ll pray for your salvation and a radical lifestyle change…
It’s a joke buddy, get over it!
Because the only thing you are entitled to is the cross that you picked up the moment you decided to follow after Christ.
Live in light of Christ and not your pride.
PJ
You are currently browsing the archives for the Uncategorized category.