As I go through my day questions constantly run through my head. Why am I here? What the heck am I doing? Sometimes I forget the reason for my life on earth and I get really frustrated with all my struggles. And then I remember Jesus… Who was Jesus, why was He here? What was His life about? Because that is what my life is about and I know I am here for His purpose… maybe the question of purpose and what I am made for is simple, I just make it difficult.
Jesus was so incredibly complex as a man, am I right or am I right?? Jesus… son of man. son of God. Perfection. Full of Grace. Love. There are so many great things that I can write about Him… I could tell you all I know and all that is written and it wouldn’t scratch the surface. When He was here, Jesus acknowleged that following Him with our entire beings would be difficult… Poeple will hate us. Jesus said that people will persecute you! He knew and He experienced that persecution Himself! He gave Himself completely, He held nothing back for us, so why do we hold so much back from Him?
Yes, life is hard sometimes… it is easy to be mad at your friends, spouse, cousins and siblings when they do something that hurts you. It is easy to be hurt when you are treated like dirt everywhere you go. I struggle with this one the most. I work for university housing… and I am constantly treated like less than human. People do not respect me, they are not kind and they don’t care. I work at a coffee shop and people get angry, impatient and rude so easily, and then they take it out on the barista… I understand, I get upset too but holy cow man… its coffee! It is so easy to be put down and to find your self worth in the way people treat you. Sometimes we hold grudges in our hearts against family members that we dont always see eye to eye with or maybe we aren’t even conscious of how we treat other people around us.
The truth is that when you signed up to follow Jesus you signed a contract that said you are a follower of Christ. You want to follow the words in the Bible that God said! You should want to feel towards others how He feels towards you! There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ and yet I see time and time again people who walk around not knowing how to show that to others… I say that because ive been there… heck, some days I am there!
Jesus made His life about you and me. He made His life about the people God created. Then He called us to make our lives about others. NOT about us. It really does not matter if you are a missionary that travels 8,000 miles to reach an unknown village or if you are a accountant at Uline. God called you to make your life about the people around you. To love them. To show them real love! To show them TRUTH. To show them Grace! You are the hands and feet of God, He wants to use you! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!!! AS A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST, THE GOD OF THE UNIVERSE WANTS TO USE YOU TO IMPACT OTHER PEOPLES LIVES… TO DO HIS WORK! But please understand that you really cannot do that and not care about others like He does.
One of the things that I have been learning is that when you ask God to show you His heart towards others… He will. And it is heartbreakingly beautiful. While I have been working my two jobs this semester I have had the opportunity to see into the hearts and lives of some amazingly strong people. If it werent for my jobs I probably never would have met any of these people and then I would not have had the chance to feel the heart of God towards them. The thing is that I am talking about some very specific people. None of them are Christ followers. Most of these people are pretty much opposite me. I never really expected this. But it is amazing. And suprisingly it is leading me towards a passion I did not know I had. (more to come on that one later)…
I guess my point in this entire long long post… (If you have made it this far, thank you) is that I am a follower of Christ. That means having His heart towards everyone in my life. EVERYONE. That is not negotiable. Jesus did not say “Hey you should show love to everyone, unless you dont feel like it and then you matter more than they do.” The truth is that when people treat me like I am not important, I feel pretty lousy… so when I treat people like they arent important… it must make them feel the same way. The words “love your neighbor as yourself” really take on some meaning when you know Gods heart towards both you and your neighbor huh?
We were made to THRIVE, and the only way to do that is to let go, and let God show you His heart and His love. Then and only then will you live with the kind of peace that surpasses understanding… and the joy that outlasts all sorrow… and the love that conquers all.
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