Patience part 5
You can't make anybody do anything. That was one of the first, best, and most important things my pastor ever taught me when I started to get into the ministry. People are going to do what they want to do. That's human nature. And a lot of the time it seems like people are going to do what you DON'T want them to do. Rebel without a cause, right? Make a line and I'll cross it. Make a rule and I'll break it. That's because true, lasting, real change come from the inside out, not the outside in. The BEST we can do is train up a child in the way he should go. The BEST we can do is to stop telling people WHAT to do, and start telling people WHO they are. Because what you do is dictated by who you are. And then we need to have enough patience to let people make mistakes. Because Rome wasn't built in a day. Good things take time. This is a journey. And THIS journey never ends. It STARTS at the end. The destination isn't something to strive for. The ride (FROM the destination TO the destination--FROM glory TO glory--as we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've already been filled with and let it come out of us naturally) is the point. And more specificially, ENJOYING the ride is the point. No true father wants his son to suffer. True parents want what's best for their children. They want their kids to succeed, and to have a wonderful life. An everlasting, eternal, abundant, Resurrection Life. Jesus' life. Which is experienced as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. And here's the key: Love is what makes an abundant life abundant. Love is what makes life worth living. Love is what makes it possible to truly live. To live is to love and to love is to live. And love is patient. Love doesn't demand its (His) own way. Love lets people be who they are. Even when they don't know who they are. Which is comforting to me, because like I said, you can't make people do anything. You can't make people act a certain way. And, yes, I understand that if you scare someone badly enough they will conform, at least for a while. At least while you're watching. But that's not real. That doesn't last. I said it before--more laws make more lawbreakers. Strict parents make sneaky kids. Instead of trying to crush people under our thumbs we need to show them a more excellent way. Don't make rebellion something cool because you are giving people something horrible to rebel against. I look at "traditional religion" and it seems to me that rebellion, or at the very least running screaming in the opposite direction, makes a lot of sense. Because God doesn't want religion. He wants relationship. Jesus didn't come to establish religion. He came to show us the Father, so that we might know ourselves as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. But if all we care about is making people fit into our religious (cultural) box, then we miss out on the most important part. Which is getting to know people. On a personal level. Connecting with people, and letting people be who they are. Having enough patience to stop giving back what people give us, and instead loving them anyway. Reaching out a helping hand even if it gets slapped away. Turning the other cheek. Giving situations time to develop, and work themselves out. Loving the hell out of people--which takes a LOT of patience--instead of trying to scare the hell out of them. I'm telling you, its a more excellent way!