Yikes. Uh Oh.
I had a new thought and I don't like it.
I have written for years with the tag line, "it's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good." Here is my new thought...... that line, as challenging as it is to me and my way of thinking, carries with it an implication that somehow my opportunity each day is to look past circumstances and see the good. It has occurred to me that a part of that thinking is very self consumed....
Oh, we have so many problems, God, help us to see the good. Oh, I have an old car, I have an old knee, I have a whatever, my air conditioner is out. God help me see the good.
Yikes. When you think about the rest of the world, we have so much. I have an old car? Most people in the world would love to have my car. I have a rusty truck? Most people would want the truck and never see the rust. I have a bad knee? I also have insurance, doctors and hospitals to take care of that knee anytime I actually decide to stop complaining about it and get it fixed. My a/c is out? Most people in the world would love to live in my home.
I am reminded of a quote from Jen Hatmaker's book Interrupted, we are "far too consumed with worthless things." Let me go on, what an embarrassment for us to laugh about "first world problems." What if we stop worrying about our worries anyway- most people in this world would love to have our problems. What if we train our brains to look and see the issues of others and act to help them, and only give 30 minutes a day to worrying about our issues? Now that would be seeing the good.
When we start thinking like this, maybe we will do all that we can to stop simply consuming, and actually make the world a better place for others.
It's a beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good.
1 comment:
Jeff, I am blessed by the fact that you are such a thinker. The complexities of the human mind are another testament to the miracle of how we were put together by God in creation. So keep thinking.
However, this is why I like the tag line to your blog, as is, and why it inspires me each day when I read your blog.
"It's a beautiful day in GOD'S WORLD." As you've preached many times over, few of us can presume to understand who God really is, let alone understanding what the expanse of God's world includes. I can only presume that in GOD'S WORLD that beauty rests in his deep love for us. And beauty rests in the plan He has for us.
"Be sure to see the good." If you take one letter out of that word, it would be "be sure to see God."
All this inspires me to reach higher and trust God that His world, His plan, and His desires encompass us as individuals, our life on this side of Heaven, and the lives of all the other people in the world. What you mentioned in your sermon yesterday was very challenging in a positive way, when you said that by the standards of people in very poor nations of the world, our poor in the U.S. are rich.
Keep thinking Jeff. You're a gifted thinker. But your "beautiful day in God's world, be sure to see the good" will always inspire me and never get old.
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