If you respect someone
If you turn to them for support
If you can talk to them
About things you don’t with others
If you have developed a friendship
If you are in constant contact
Does this mean you love them?
How is it that everyone seems to leave
When they have nothing more to gain
Or it is inconvenient or takes too much time?
When all business is done
When they have sold you everything they can
When they have finished their job
And the payment has been received?
Does this mean they do not care?
Or is this just the world today?
Is it that family is different or my family is different?
What does it take to be encouraged today?
How do we accept what we cannot change?
It is easy to get cynical about helping others
Especially when they take the opportunity
To get even more out of you
They leave you when they get what they want
And they lose respect for you in the process
And they are careless with what you give them
God calls us to help those
Who cannot help themselves regardless
Life is messy and complex though
All of us are selfish in our own way
God gives us much and we are often unfaithful
It is like where the Bible says
How many times you are to forgive others
How often do you want God to forgive you?
When Jesus explains how to pray
We are told to ask God to forgiver us
To the same extent we forgive others
Many see this as weakness and always will
But there is power in this too
Gandhi’s explanation for non-violence
Goes something like this
Violence feeds off itself and never ends
If you decide not to return in kind
You stop the cycle there
Easier said than done
As with everything important in life
One of the good things about forgiveness
Is that is frees the forgiver
As those who commit sins against us
Are rarely turned by their conscience
The person that does not forgive and forget
Is the ones that suffers unnecessary pain
So if you find someone who is still around
After many years of struggle
Even when things get ugly
These are the people who are your real friends
Sometimes this applies to family or church members
This is always true of God
God is different because He never seeks anything from us
He doesn’t need us in any way
And yet He still courts our friendship
And died for us willingly
Even though He suffered terribly
And He had done nothing wrong
He did not even break the law once
Or do anything improper with anyone
And yet the response from us
Was to kill Him rather than
Admit our weakness and follow our conscience
He was totally abandoned by His father
At the worst possible time
And suffered the worst injustice imaginable
He defeated evil with weakness
He proves that we when we are weak
God is strong in us
Our battle is not primarily external
We fight our own minds and hearts
So when we follow God through hard times
He is not limited in what He does for us
The limit on God is His respect for our free will
So once we remove our stubbornness
God’s power and help is not blocked anymore
God is truly a romantic
He wants us to choose to love and follow Him
Why would you not want to follow Him?
I guess you have not experienced enough of life
To know how rare it is
To find someone who would sacrifice even a little
For anyone else
Christianity is a game changer
Once we admit the evil in us
Is as great as the evil in others
If you turn to them for support
If you can talk to them
About things you don’t with others
If you have developed a friendship
If you are in constant contact
Does this mean you love them?
How is it that everyone seems to leave
When they have nothing more to gain
Or it is inconvenient or takes too much time?
When all business is done
When they have sold you everything they can
When they have finished their job
And the payment has been received?
Does this mean they do not care?
Or is this just the world today?
Is it that family is different or my family is different?
What does it take to be encouraged today?
How do we accept what we cannot change?
It is easy to get cynical about helping others
Especially when they take the opportunity
To get even more out of you
They leave you when they get what they want
And they lose respect for you in the process
And they are careless with what you give them
God calls us to help those
Who cannot help themselves regardless
Life is messy and complex though
All of us are selfish in our own way
God gives us much and we are often unfaithful
It is like where the Bible says
How many times you are to forgive others
How often do you want God to forgive you?
When Jesus explains how to pray
We are told to ask God to forgiver us
To the same extent we forgive others
Many see this as weakness and always will
But there is power in this too
Gandhi’s explanation for non-violence
Goes something like this
Violence feeds off itself and never ends
If you decide not to return in kind
You stop the cycle there
Easier said than done
As with everything important in life
One of the good things about forgiveness
Is that is frees the forgiver
As those who commit sins against us
Are rarely turned by their conscience
The person that does not forgive and forget
Is the ones that suffers unnecessary pain
So if you find someone who is still around
After many years of struggle
Even when things get ugly
These are the people who are your real friends
Sometimes this applies to family or church members
This is always true of God
God is different because He never seeks anything from us
He doesn’t need us in any way
And yet He still courts our friendship
And died for us willingly
Even though He suffered terribly
And He had done nothing wrong
He did not even break the law once
Or do anything improper with anyone
And yet the response from us
Was to kill Him rather than
Admit our weakness and follow our conscience
He was totally abandoned by His father
At the worst possible time
And suffered the worst injustice imaginable
He defeated evil with weakness
He proves that we when we are weak
God is strong in us
Our battle is not primarily external
We fight our own minds and hearts
So when we follow God through hard times
He is not limited in what He does for us
The limit on God is His respect for our free will
So once we remove our stubbornness
God’s power and help is not blocked anymore
God is truly a romantic
He wants us to choose to love and follow Him
Why would you not want to follow Him?
I guess you have not experienced enough of life
To know how rare it is
To find someone who would sacrifice even a little
For anyone else
Christianity is a game changer
Once we admit the evil in us
Is as great as the evil in others