Friday, October 30, 2009

Making a Difference

It could be the neighbor across the street who is elderly and rarely has a visitor. Or the single mom struggling to provide for a child on her own. Or, it could be that the barista who prepared your expresso today fears losing her job.

Look closer, and you may discover that a close friend or neighbor lost a family member today. The point is that no matter who you are, or how good things may be going for you, if you look around, there will always be someone in need of a little encouragement, a helping hand, or a smile and a kind word.

We all have our own troubles, and it is so easy to become absorbed in our own sorrows and ambitions to the point that we become blind and calloused to the sufferings of those around us.

Galatians 6:2 tells us;

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ."

Our sinful nature demands that we look after our own needs and concerns and forget everyone else. But this is not God's way. His nature does the exact opposite - (after all, it wasn't for Christ's own benefit that He was crucified and tasted death and hell- it was for our benefit).

How many of us would go that far to help someone else? But we are commanded in God's Word to 'bear one another's burdens' and to "do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith." (vs.10)

Every day we have a choice about how we interact with those around us. Everything we do and say, and even our countenance has an effect on those we come into contact with on a daily basis.
We can either be the jerk who demands to be waited on before others or we can choose to let others go first. We can bear a grudge, complain, and find fault with others - or we can choose to forgive, to defend, and to speak a kind word.

What it all boils down to every day, in every choice, is, who is Lord? Are we going to be "lord" of our own attitudes, words and responses to others, or will we allow Jesus to?


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