The Journey: Do it Anyway!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Do it Anyway!

God's been working on me this week.

You see - I don't have much patience. To those who are frequent readers of my blog, you know this already. I've spoken about my lack of patience many times. One of the things that I don't have much patience with is poor customer service. I just don't get it. Rude people. Lazy people. Passion-less people. People who don't smile and can't say thank you. These are the types of things that drive me nuts! Seriously! It can just send me off a cliff when I run into a rude person behind a service counter. It can honestly set the tone for my entire day.

But didn't I say earlier that God has been working on my this week?

Oh but He has!

This week as I was pondering yet another encounter of rude and un-loving behavior, I heard the voice of God say to me, "Do it anyway."

At first, I didn't understand what it meant.

I tried ignoring it, but it kept coming to me, "Do it anyway." (Let me just insert here that when God is trying to get your attention about something... it's really hard to ignore. My advice: don't try to ignore Him.)

So - when I got home that night, I wrote it on a sticky note and put it up on our refrigerator door - DO IT ANYWAY.

As I began drifting off to sleep that night, it dawned on me what God was trying to say to me. I believe it was this...

When people don't treat me the way I think I deserve to be treated - treat them lovingly anyway!
When people don't respond kindly to me - treat them with kindness anyway.
When people don't listen to me - listen respectfully to them anyway.
When people don't trust me - trust them anyway.

Do it anyway! Why? Because didn't Jesus die for THOSE people too?

Wow - what a lesson, God. Thank you. I needed that this week. You love us even during those times when we don't show you our love back. You're kind to us - even when we don't always show you kindness. You listen to us - when we don't always listen to you.

You teach us in your word in Matthew 25:40,