Willing…
It seems like most of the time we are in our own little world and nothing really matters that doesn’t affect us. I can spend my whole day, weeks, months and only be concerned with what directly affects me or my family. Honestly I have done that for almost my entire life.
Lately, I have been thinking about the world a lot differently. I have been focusing less on myself and more on others. I have always focused on my immediate family, but I am talking more about people all around me, even complete strangers. I am being more intentional about being kind, helping others, and letting go of my own plans. Listening more, talking less. Well I am a quiet guy, but I had a bad habit of not truly listening and forming my response or thoughts while someone else was talking. But most of all, I am being obedient.
For the longest time, I ignored the little nudges and thoughts to do things. I was so stuck on just worrying about myself that I just didn’t allow myself to be concerned with anything else. Now, I am looking for the nudges, and the thoughts, and opportunities to grow and help others. I look forward to it, even if it gets me out of my comfort zone. I just had to be willing to put other people above myself.
Throughout the bible there are tons of scriptures that tell us to serve others.
God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Philippians 2:3
But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, Matthew 20:26
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Romans 12:10
That is just a few of them. We are instructed to serve others, be humble, use our gifts for the benefit of others, and love each other. Why have we lost this message in our society? I believe it is because we are taught to be unwilling to worry about anyone else. We are taught that the world is hard and only the strong survive, the ruthless succeed, and those who cheat win. Nothing could be farther from the truth though.
We need to get back to having a community around us. Not being scared to bother anyone, but instead be there for our neighbors. How many contacts do you have in your phone or on your Fakebook friends list that you can call for advice or help and you know you would get what you need? How many people would call you if they needed something? Those are questions that I had to be brutally honest with myself about and I didn’t like the answers.
I decided to be willing to be led, willing to put myself out there, willing to help others, even when I have no idea what I’m doing. What I am coming to find is that it doesn’t matter if you know what you are doing or not, what matters is that you are willing to and actually take the step in the first place. After that things will fall into place as they are meant to.
This week I encourage you to take a deep look at how you are showing up in life. Figure out if you are truly willing to do what needs to be done to get our society back on track. Either way, take a step in the right direction.