The Despised Word

I haven't been able to decide if the despised word is siblings or humility. Most of us have at least one sibling, if not more. Generally we grow up with these people and we share a huge parts of our lives with them, but we tend to have roller-coaster relationships with them. The interesting thing about sibling relationships is that these are the one relationships in life that you never decide to have. You never chose to have a sibling or siblings, you never thought; one those people would be great to grow up with. Nope they were just given. In most cases we don't have the option to get rid of our sibling relationships, so what we do with those relationships is up to us. 

I have two younger brothers, I would say that compared to allot of siblings we have a good relationship, but like all other siblings we do have roller-coaster rides. No other person has ever gotten on my nerves as badly as my brothers can, no other person has made me cry as much, laugh as much, or scream as much.  Although we do fight allot, I have learned quite a bit from my brothers. Patience, true love, trust, and compassion, just to name a few. Something that they have been teaching me over the past couple of weeks is humility. 

This seems like such a funny thing for a 10 and 13 year old to be teaching me; since most kids have only one thing on their minds....themselves. As I was watching my brothers beat each other up the other day for the dumbest reason, I thought here we go again. As one crumpled to the ground in tears, I walked in, and the accusing began. I continually ask them the same question after all of this goes down. Why do you have to be so selfish and mean to each-other?! 

After I did this for the 50th time in one day I sat back and thought to myself, why do I have to be so selfish and mean to them? Although I may not beat them up or scream at them like they do to each-other, I say little rude things to them, I shrug away an unwanted hug, I boss them around, and point out all of their short comings. Why do I have to be so selfish and mean to them? Because they can be annoying or rude to me? Because they won't listen? No because, I want my interests and needs to come before my annoying little brothers. I get an attitude of, I am older and the things that I want are and should be more important than the dumb things that young boys like to do or talk about. 

When I am doing things for others outside of me and my brothers relationship, it is much easier to practice humility. It's still not the easiest thing in the whole world because, we still do like our needs to come first but, it is generally much easier to serve others as long as they are not our siblings. Part of this may come from the fact that other people compliment us on our great acts of humility, or from the fact that we feel good about ourselves for helping others or because we simply enjoy helping others.  Although all this is wonderful; are we really full of humility if we can't even sacrifice ourselves for our own siblings? 

I can already hear people saying: "Uh Laura these are my siblings we are talking about! They are the most self-centered, annoying, and undeserving people ever. And you think that I should show them humility and love?!" YES! I have come to realize that if I want to be a truly humble person I can't just pick and chose who I want to show humility to. It doesn't matter if I get recognition for being kind to my brothers, it doesn't matter if they don't deserve is, it doesn't matter if they continue to be frustrating and bothersome, nothing matters. 

Because I do serve the person who continually shows me humility even though He is 100x better than me, I should be able to humble myself in His strength and serve those precious brats of mine even though most of me may not want to. If we want to be humble people we will first chose to be humble to those who are least deserving in our eyes, no matter what. Why? Because we want to show Christ's love and humility to all people....even our siblings. 

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity!"

 Psalms 133:1

"This I command you, that you love one another." John 15:17

What's Your Motivation?

 Every Sunday morning thousands of people around America go to church and sit in a pew because, there is some unspoken rule that going to church on Sunday morning will save you. This unspoken rule is despised by most of the people that sit through an hour long "lecture" each week. As they walk out of the church building they let out a sigh of relief; they now get to go on doing whatever it is that they feel like doing. 

In most peoples mind the word Christianity triggers thoughts of judgmental, self-righteous and legalistic people. Although this thought is perpetuated by Christians who are all the above; these thoughts mainly come from the "Christians" who just want an excuse to justify all of their actions that they know deep down are wrong. These people go around saying things like, "Ugh you wouldn't believe how judgmental so and so is; it's a good thing God's love lets me do whatever makes me feel good." 

What these people and people all over the world don't understand is that God, is not JUST a judge, or JUST loving, or JUST compassionate, or JUST sovereign. He is all of these, plus millions of things more put all together. As human beings we have this tendency to pick and chose what we like and what makes us feel comfortable. We act like we have a choice to chose the characteristics of God that best suit us in the time and place we are in, in life. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth though, God has and always will be fully God. Instead of trying to adjust God to suit our needs we have the choice and free will to accept who God has and always will be. This means that we will stop putting God in a box. Instead of focusing on just one of His characteristics we will press into Him and explore all of His characteristics. The ones that seem to hurt, the ones that are beautiful, the one that don't  fit our expectations, and the ones that we can't always understand. 

Our whole view on the world will start to change if we are trusting and leaning on the full image of God. Instead of seeing His words as a set of rules that have to be followed on Sunday mornings or whenever it feels right, we see them as an act of worship to the Creator who gave each one of us such beautiful lives. When Christ came to earth we see Him not banishing the law but, fulfilling the law. We watch in awe as He perfectly follows every word that God set in place. Surprisingly though full filling the law did not mean that he went around with a little checklist showing everybody how amazing He was for not breaking any of the laws. In fact He gets frustrated with the people that thought this. (Luke 6:1-5, Mark 3:1-6, Matthew 23, Luke 7:36-50)

Jesus came to show us that we are imperfect and that we can't fulfill the law. It is literally humanly impossible to follow the law perfectly. He also showed us that the law isn't what we thought or think it is. It is not a set of rules that if you follow you get a little gold star that you can than go and show off to every single person, telling them how amazing you are. Jesus did not come to banish the law but, to show us what the law is meant for. 

In demonstrating to us that the law was there to show us that we are imperfect and need a perfect savior, Jesus also raised the bar for us as Christians. Instead of focusing on a set of rules and regulations, He looks at us as intimately and focuses on our heart, or motivation. When we accept His invitation to live free from rules and regulations that bog us down each day we are given the opportunity to live in Christ's perfection. We no longer have to worry about following the rules to a T or being judged by those who do. Now we are focused on our motivation, which is to love Jesus. 

Instead of asking questions like: "Is this right?" Ask "Is this going to benefit those around me?" Instead of asking: "Is it wrong to say this?" Ask "Would this show others love." Instead of asking: "Can I get away with this?" Ask: "Is this beneficial to me or those around me?" Instead of focusing on the "rules" of Christianity we should be focused on a way of living. If we decide to let the only person who selflessly loves us and has our best interest at heart, with no strings attached, into our lives we will begin to truly live a free life.

Instead of letting our motivation be ourselves, money, peoples approval, work, or any number of things, we will let our love for Christ become our motivation. We will not be judgmental Christians, we will not be prideful Christians, we will not be justifying Christians, we will not be legalistic Christians; we will be Jesus Christians.  

 

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And when the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell-and great was its fall." -Matthew 7:24-27