Shrug part 4
God told Jeremiah, "They aren't going to listen to you. Tell them what I say anyway." That has always been so powerful to me. Because it takes a lot of the pressure off. When I write these daily Rants sometimes I'll ask my kid, "What should I Rant about today?" Because I know he will answer either, "Family," or "Love." His two favorite subjects. But the truth is, I just write what's on my heart. I don't write because I think I have it all figured out. I write in order to figure stuff out. And to, hopefully, help other people figure stuff out. But I don't sit there waiting and hoping that I'll get a good response. Or a lot of likes. Of course it's nice when people respond, or interact. But, unlike Lady Gaga, I don't do it for the applause. I do it because it's in my heart to do it. Which is to say... whatsoever you do, do it as unto the Lord, and not unto men. Do it TO men, but not as unto them. Love God and love people. Love God BY loving people. Let God love you and then love Him back by loving the people that cross paths with you. And by "love them" I don't mean control and manipulate them. I don't mean pretend to be nice to them in order to get something from them. I mean... give people what you've got. See a need and meet it. And, if they don't pick up what you're laying down... do your best and forget the rest. Love is maximum effort, right? So give it everything you've got. But then let that either be enough... or not. Because once you've given something everything you've got... that, by definition, is all you can do. All you can do is all you can do. And not everybody will be able to accept, or appreciate that. And that's ok. You don't have to change the world. Look at Romans 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." We get so worked up about following a law (that was never given to us in the first place, unless we are the literal people of Israel... and was completely fulfilled and replaced on the cross in any event) that we lose sight of what the law of Moses was trying to do. It was trying to teach a nation of slaves how to live once out of the bonds of slavery. And it was showing them that under their own power they couldn't keep it anyway. They--and we, I'll include us in this one--needed a Savior. God so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son. He filled us with Jesus. With love. With His Spirit. His life. His nature. So that we could stop trying so hard to get something we think we haven't got and just rest in the loving arms of our heavenly Father. So that we could do what is in our heart to do, give it that maximum effort, and let that be that. Hold our heads high. Shrug our shoulders and move on. Be at peace with doing what our hearts--our God--told us to do. I've tried a lot of things in my life. Not all of them worked out the way I hoped they would. But at least I tried. More is lost by indecision than wrong decision. Grace to grow gives us the room to operate. To make mistakes and learn from our mistakes. To know better, and then do better. This never ending eternal life is made for us LIVE. Which means it is made for us to LOVE. To give what we've got and be content that we gave what we got. No matter how it is received. Wisdom helps us help people receive it, but at the end of the day it is God who gets the harvest. We simply plant, or water, the seed!