There You Are not Here I Am

People will read our lives before they read the gospel we share. Pastor Daniel

Colossians 3:7 Let every activity of your lives and every word that comes from your lips be drenched with the beauty of our Lord Jesus,

So how we live whether it is clinging to our relationship with Him and putting others before ourselves or distracted and self-focus, people view Jesus by our choices.  This has always seemed daunting to me since I am broken and would never want anyone to judge Christ by this Christian. He did everything in love. I cannot say I have managed to live even one day in only love. Oh I have 1 Corinthians 16-14 on my wrist....let love and kindness be the motivation in all you do. But I am not even close to living out those words. What I can say is that I strive to live putting others before myself. 

When I walk into a room or a conversation with a 'There you are' not  a 'Here I am'  perspective.

I am more apt to listen with my two ears twice as much as I speak with my one mouth. I need the reminder more often than I care to admit that I don't have to share everything that is in my head with others. After all, I will learn when they speak and I already know what I know. So it is a chance to learn if I make it about them not me. My students heard me say over and over that the goal is to be a lifelong learner not a lifelong sharer. Oh wait. I want to be a sharer in that I want to be unselfish. Focusing on others is a way to be the kind of sharer I want to be not the me, me, me sharer when I enter drawing the attention to me. 

Sure there are times when each of us is going through something and needs to raise our hand figuratively and spew. But that should be reserved for a handful of people who are our trusted friends rather than venting to anyone and everyone within earshot. Does the gentleman buying laxative in the pharmacy line really care if someone offended me before I came to the store? I'm pretty sure he has other things on his mind and in his gut to focus on. 

It doesn't even make it right when we wrap our centering the conversation on us with framing it as a prayer request. Again, let me find out how I can pray for others and take my prayer partners for mine. Perhaps, I need to spend a week or two starting conversations with 'There you are." I will bet it will open a conversation with the person I approach wondering if I thought they were missing or out of town. As long as we swing our chat back to how their life is going after a chuckle of course. 

So here you go. Leave me a comment and let me know how you are. You know how I am if you are reading this because I am here in this blog for you to see.

In Him,

Joyful

2-18-22