Then the righteous will answer him, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?"The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
The striking things about this quote is that the righteous haven't realized what they've done, and the truth is so simple. I've wasted many years worrying about whether I was following God's will for my life. It is easier than that.
I like the way Kurt Vonnegut put it in The Sirens of Titan.
"Only an Earthling year ago," said Constant. "It took us that long to realize that a purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved."
The day-to-day spirtual life lies more in wisdom and responsibility than in "spirituality" as it is often presented. Barry Ritholtz made the following statement about financial investing, but I think the application is wider.
As the magnitude of the awesome responsibility of taking control--and responsibility--sets in, it tends to sharpen the mind. It is empowering.
I think Spider-man may have gotten in backwards: With responsibility comes great power.
This rings true. Consider Proverbs 14:23, "All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty." If God intended to tell me exactly what to do with myself, then why did Solomon need to write Proverbs 15:22, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."?
The opportunity to be spiritual is always right in front of me, and easily accessible. I only have to take responsibilty, and serve others. It's been humbling to integrate this into my life.
The primary venue for my service is at work, because that is where I spend most of my time, but also because that is where people are most dependent on me. This is challenging because work is the place where people master the art of avoiding responsibility and reassigning blame. There are many opportunities to practice the art of forgiving, and even more to practice the art of self-examination. Sometimes I spend more of the day worried about or furious with how things are going than acutally getting things done. I've had some late nights with God, in tears, telling him that this is not the person I want to be. Anxiety always comes down to trusting Him.
2 comments:
I love this. Would you consider turning this into an article for ChristianBibleStudies.com? No pay, but great experience!
Some thoughts on turning this into an article:
Work on an introduction and conclusion. Try to write it primarily in third person instead of first, although you can use first person for examples. When you use a quote, assume ignorance of it - such as state the Spider-man quote before turning it around. The entire thing needs more continuity. Our articles are about 2,000 words. I hope this gives you a little more to go on. Just do it if you want to!
Post a Comment