Growing up my favourite book was called, “Robert the Rose Horse” - it was a pretty brilliant piece of literature containing all of the elements you would expect in a great story - there were horses and roses and sneezing. To say that it shaped my life is probably grossly exaggerating the truth, but I adored the tale nonetheless. Read the rest of this entry »
We live in a strange time. I’m not complaining about it mind you, there are plenty of things in our day and age that I love. Whether it’s our ability to travel to the other side of the world with relative ease or the fact that on my phone I’m able to check email, surf the net and use GPS (never mind actually making calls). We are a brilliant people, shrinking the world, increasing our ability to communicate and tackling all sorts of the world’s problems with things like medical advancements.
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
Recently in my neighbourhood there has been much talk regarding older, rundown buildings in the city where I live and their replacement - for good or for bad. I don’t often enter into the conversations regarding these older buildings for lots of reasons. First of all, emotions are running high on both sides of the conversation and also, there are lots of politics tied in to it all. I leave the political conversations for my wife to handle as she’s the news savvy member of our household. My conversation portfolio revolves around other issues, like consumption of cheese and why dogs are better pets than cats - you know, important stuff…
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
