TRUTH: Most days, we’re all just trying to get through the day.
(disclaimer: this is gonna be long, but stick with my two-fold thought here)
Some of us ate burnt toast for breakfast and spend the whole day giving in to that bitterness. Some of us have just suffered some greatly unfair injustice and we are battling the entire day, fighting back tooth and nail at anyone who crosses our path. Some of us have spent the night awake, sobbing, at what the world has taken from us….and we spend the entire day taking from others to fill our emptiness. Some of us have just realized what it means to be utterly alone, utterly terrified, utterly exhausted, utterly disappointed, utterly at rock bottom.
So I urge you, myself included: Be humble. Be patient. Be a servant of the world, like Jesus was, metaphorically ‘washing the feet’ of those you meet. All those you meet. Burnt-toast-taking-from-you-utterly-exhasuted people included (and yes, sometimes we are all of those combined). You are that person some days. I am that person some days.
And when you are, how about instead: Fight against the bitterness. Fight against the fighting. Fight against the taking. Let that light of Jesus Christ shine in you, so that the world knows we’re different. We are different. We must be different. It hurts sometimes, I know. And others will criticize. How can you be so chipper in the face of this? It seems wrong to be so happy when something so terrible happened. God convicted me of that myself not too long ago. But the peace of God passes all understanding.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians
That first verse there is my favorite Bible verse. Rejoice in the Lord always! Let your gentleness be evident to all. Do not be anxious about anything…in every situation…with thanksgiving…and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds. I think my earthly mind was just blown. That sounds way too difficult, not gonna lie. But look: the heart is the wellspring of life, the Bible tells us.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
or, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Wow! He will do that for us, He will guard our hearts if we pray to Him with thanksgiving. He will protect our hearts and minds with His peace that passes all understanding. He will protect our very lives….everything that we do.
Trust me, all of this goes against my nature. Ohhhhh, how some of this goes against my nature! When I’m mad or sad or upset, I want to either be mad and upset totally alone, wallowing…I’m a really good wallower (word?). Or I want the whole world to be as mad or sad as I am. It only seems fair! It seems justifiable to feel that way; natural, even. I’m also really good at passing judgement. Oops. Fail. But here’s the thing: God is a God of different, a God of mercy, and a God of supernatural.
So then.
What’s that burning rubber smell? Anyone else getting that?
That, my dear friends, is the rubber meeting the road.
