Do it Anyway...

More and more these days we are all being called to do more with less, for less and in spite of rising tensions in all areas of our life. I believe it breaks across all industries and walks of life. We all just got ahead of ourselves and sometimes adjustment is needed. I was thinking of this allegory last weekend as I was trimming bushes and cutting back the Crepe Myrtles in our front yard. It seems counter-intuitive to cut back almost all of last years growth during the last throes of Winter, just before Spring begins. But if you know anything about plants, if you don't continually prune, the growth will not be nearly as robust in the coming growing season.

All that being said, it brings me back around to one of the major tenets of my life. I found these "rules" several years ago when on a plane trip back from my mother's funeral in Pennsylvania. I was obviously at a low point and came across the following long quote...

The Paradoxical Commandments
by Dr. Kent M. Keith


People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.

© Copyright Kent M. Keith 1968, renewed 2001

I hope you are able to make the same leap of understanding about life that I was. It is not about the forces from without. True happiness and fulfillment comes from working towards what you know to be "right", despite what others may try to burden you with. Persevere, continue on and thrive into what you are called to be. You will be happier for it.

Conscious and Purposeful Victim

Genesis 3:4-5
4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

Most of us recognize the setting this verse comes from. I believe we overlook the implication of the original sin it justifies in our every day life. If we try to simplify it into modern terms I believe we can use one word with universal application... Pride. The subtle implications of this one moment in time are the root of almost everything we experience today. Whether we admit it or not, this is the verse that describes that process by which each of us justifies everything we do.

Pause and reflect on that thought for a moment. Hold up each and every thought and action of your day. Is there anything in that day that is genuinely selfless? Or are you like me and if really honest can trace some level of personal gain in it all? I am certainly not pointing a finger here because I am as guilty as everyone else. I just want to pull back the curtain of hypocrisy that many Christians hide behind. The life that we are called to encompasses two extremes that seem to be mutually exclusive. In all things follow the example of Christ and hold yourself personally accountable to what is right and true as written in the Bible...AND...Treat others, regardless of there imperfections, as you would want to be treated.

What I see is a world where people trying to live up to the first example feel empowered to become God's Judge here on earth. That is wrong. I also see people who feel that treating other people well, the second example, makes them immune to the requirements of personal accountability within the first. What our enemy would love to happen, and seems to be very successful in bringing about, is for all of us to focus on those differences and wrestle with our own personal subjective truths.

It is not your job or mine to personally work to change others. We have this undeniably strong urge to enforce our interpretation of what is right (refer back to the above scripture here) and as such lose sight of what God wants us to do. If we closely follow Jesus example, we see a man who chose to focus solely on God's purpose. He was completely aware that his actions would cause his death. He did it anyway.

Pursue and love God. Do what the Bible says and love others as yourself. Do right even if it will cause you pain and maybe lead to failure, possibly death. From that type of life flows blessing. It is not a logical and mathematical progression but it does seem to work.

Psalms 1:1-3
1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.