What Shall We Do Then? part 2
When asked, "What shall we do then?" John the Baptist answered with, "...He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise" (Luke 3:11). Which to me is pretty simple. Pretty basic. See a need and, if at all possible, meet it. Live out of your abundance. And I really like the part about "He that hath two coats." Because somehow--and I THINK it comes from Luke 18:22, "Now when Jesus heard all these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me." I think it comes from the idea, and I've actually heard this preached, that "Jesus said" you can't have anything if you want to follow Him. First of all, that's not what He said. Look at Proverbs 10:22, "The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it." And Genesis 12:2, "And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing." Right there at the very end. That's the point. We are blessed... to be a blessing. The one thing that the rich young ruler to whom Jesus was speaking in Luke 18 lacked... was that compassion for his fellow man. He had stuff, and that wasn't a problem. His stuff had him, and that was. It's ok to have stuff. It's not ok to be a prisoner to the stuff you have. If you can't walk away from something--be it person, place, or thing--you're a slave to it. And Jesus doesn't want us to be slaves to anything. Except maybe love. But we talked about that a few Rants ago. For today I want to focus on what's important. Which is not what you have... but what you do with what you have. See, John didn't say, "Give up your coat and freeze to death." We are not meant to suffer--even if our suffering would help someone else. We are meant to live out of our abundance. Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. He blesses us... so that we can be a blessing to others. So that we can give what we've got because we know what we've got, and because it is what everybody in the world needs. Everybody needs love. And, yes, that comes in many different shapes and sizes. Some people can't or won't receive from me. That's ok. I'm not for everyone. I choose to NOT bang my head against the wall (and end up with only a headache), but to pour myself into the people in my life that can and will and do receive from me. Those people that we really connect with--that's your tribe. That's where you can have the greatest impact. Both positively or negatively. It's so important that we take care of the things (PEOPLE) that are important to us. That we let the love that is already inside of us come out. That we don't take people for granted, or use and abuse them. How you treat people doesn't really say anything about them, but it says everything about you. So when you don't know what to do... just do what you know. Give what you've got. Love the people in your path. Get in where you fit in and share the love that you have inside. Love is what makes the abundant life abundant. Love is what everybody needs, and love is what we have to give! What you don't know what to do, do what you know. Love!