Extra Mile part 5
When we focus on the "when someone takes advantage of you, use it as an opportunity to practice the servant life" aspect of going the extra mile what we're really saying is, "Kill 'em with kindness." Show them a more excellent way. Don't be a thermometer and TAKE the temperature... be a thermostat and SET the temperature. Don't take what the world gives you and try to make the best of it. Realize that there is something else available to you. Abundance. The Kingdom of God. (The Kingdom of Love.) And then act out of that abundance. If you have two coats, give one to someone who doesn't have one. And listen, because this is important, when Jesus was watching people give money into the treasury He said, "...Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living" (Mark 12:43-44). Going the extra mile doesn't mean doing the least you can do. I means giving all you have, and all you are. Loving with the same love that we are loved with. Laying our lives down for our friends, because that's exactly what Jesus did for us on the cross. So there's an aspect of this where I DO NOT believe we should put ourselves in bad situations. I think God will carry us through bad situations, but I don't think we need to put ourselves there. I always say, "I don't need to look for trouble because it usually knows where to find me." I'm simply saying that we have been blessed to be a blessing. There's a difference between giving out of your abundance in the sense of just throwing money at a problem--the Bible says money answereth all things, but Jesus IS the answer to all things--and meeting a need. Killing yourself in order to "take care of" someone else isn't really taking care of them. Remember the old saying, "If you work for a living, why are you killing yourself working?" There's supposed to be a flow. There's supposed to an ease to this thing. The UNFORCED rhythms of grace. Receiving and releasing. Not trying to over-extend yourself... but just BEING yourself. Doing what you can do, where you're at, to affect those people you come into contact with. Don't run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Don't bang your head against the wall--all you'll get is a headache. Don't try to be someone you're not, or do something you can't. None of that is going the "extra" mile. Just give it all you've got, and then it'll either be enough, or it won't. And either way you will have done your part. On one of my son's favorite cartoons it says, "Do your best and forget the rest." And to me THAT'S what it means to go the extra mile. Start with love, end with love, and let love be everything in between. It's all about love. Living out of your abundance means living out of love. Because love is what MAKES this abundant life abundant. To live is to love and to love is to live. To love is to GIVE. So give it all you've got. And don't get discouraged if it doesn't work out exactly the way you thought it would. People aren't always going to like you. Love them anyway. Kill 'em with kindness. Show them a more excellent way. It's hard to hate someone who is loving the hell out of you. Someone who is going the extra mile for you!