Practice part 1
As in, "Practice what you preach." As in, "Put your money where your mouth is." As in, "Where the rubber meets the road." Basically: Charity. Which is love... in action. And that, to me, is one of the coolest things about Jesus. He didn't just spout off a bunch of stuff that sounded good. He said something... and then He did it. He said, "Turn the other cheek." And then when people were beating on Him, and spitting on Him... He turned the other cheek. He said, "The greatest love a man can have is to lay His life down for His friends" (I'm paraphrasing, not quoting directly). And then He went to the cross and literally laid His life down for us. See, Jesus said a lot of things that even His own disciples didn't understand. But actions speak louder than words. The old saying, "Preach the gospel at all times... and if you have to, use words." Pretty simple. Pretty powerful. But here's what I want to say today--and I have to say it today because it literally happened yesterday--when you have a chance to practice what you preach... do it. Even though people might not understand. And here (without getting too detailed in order to protect the innocent) is what I mean. I had a chance to really get ahead financially. But it would have done some damage to people not name me. And from most people's point of view it would have been nothing less than justice. "Its not your problem if it hurts them. They brought it on themselves." Logic like that. Which is hard to argue with. And you know I'm a fan of logic. Logan talks me into things more often than not because he uses Logan Logic. And if I can't argue with it I'll go with it. (And, yes, with Logan I tend to lean on the side of hooking him up regardless. That's 100% true. But remember how we're trying to treat EVERYBODY like their our favorite? Blessing those that dispitefully use us? And here's the thing I always come back to: Every "issue" is really about people. And people are important. I think God and people are the only (or at the very least the most) important things there are. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. So I felt like it would be a little bit hypocritical of me to talk about how wrong it is to climb over someone else in order to get ourselves a little bit higher... and then do that. Even with "justice" on my side. Basically, I'm trying to say that if you have to hurt someone else... its not worth it. Even if they've hurt you. Even if they WOULD hurt you if the situation was reversed. That doesn't matter. What matters is what's inside YOU coming out. What matters is not telling people what happened and then having to explain it because they can't believe that you did what you did. They don't need to understand it. YOU need to be at PEACE with it. Because while money IS necessary to live... peace of mind is priceless. And when someone who doesn't expect mercy gets some... that's about as powerful as it gets. When you can "let someone off the hook" instead of using your "power" to crush them... that's TRUE power. The power of love. The power of giving instead of getting. And, as I'm hoping to get into in the next few days, when you actually practice what you preach... that's when it becomes REAL. Real to others... and real to you. You receive by releasing. By giving what you've got. By practicing what you preach!