The title of this post is intended to be about getting to where Christ meets us. If you are a Christian, a believer, then my fervent hope is that someone has given you the news that Christ will meet you where you are. Yes, right there in the mud and muck of the life mess you are making.
Even if Christ has met you hundreds of times already, He will still crawl back down into the filth of your life and take hold of you. No amount of lying, adultery, stealing, cheating, abusing, killing, raping, no amount of anything is able to overcome the love of Christ, or His desire to meet you where you are.
See, I am not a perfect person. Not by any stretch or measurement am I near that lofty goal. Nor am I pursuing that particular metric in any kind of systematic way. I don't like working to things that are impossible. What I am trying to do is follow some simple rules for my life that will help me better model Jesus to others. He is my goal, and the more like Him I can be, the more I see a better world and blessings to others.
I kind of didn't want to share my 6 rules, because they are, of necessity, different for all of us. But, as an example, I will list mine. If you know me well, you will see that these are tailored for me. Some of these things will not be relevant for others. Some will need only 2 or 3 rules. Some might need 10. They don't cover all situations, nor do they make me automatically a better person.
If you don't like rules, use guide points, targets, boundaries, aspirations, whatever. For me, if it isn't a rule, I probably am not going to pay attention.
1. You are ALWAYS on display!
2. If Jesus wouldn't say it, don't you dare!
3. Be a Tax Collector, not a Pharisee!
4. Persuasion is inversely proportional to Anger!
5. If you cannot help, ENCOURAGE!
6. Stop - Think - Act - Pray!
As you can probably tell, I struggle with temper, or perhaps, more accurately passion. Like most everyone in the world, I do not consider the fact that others do not come from the same background, experience and teaching that I do. It is never that they don't consider things important that have fired me up, they just have not had the background that I have. Nor do many people in the world have the ability to amp up to the level I can achieve.
When I don't remember that, and I utilize my angry words and my passion indiscriminately, it hurts people and upsets people and it is counter productive. I never end up with the desired outcome, nor the result that is most beneficial. At 48, looking hard at 49, it is starting to sink in to me. You are never too old, too ingrained, or too cranky to change, if you want to.
So, I like to consider myself a work in progress. I have had these rules for a very long time, and they did not exhibit any kind of real and sustained change, after a while. I made a huge change in my outward manifestation when I left the Navy. I quickly discovered that the people not indoctrinated into military life were entirely incapable of surviving military treatment.
Don't take that wrong, people should not be treated the way they are in the military. But, it was the construct I operated within, and I was exceptionally talented at it. I was amped up from morning muster until 0200 when I would sneak down to the plant and surprise them doing daily work and wear 'em out some more. It translated to really effective programs and Divisions. It translated to exceptional casualty control performance. But, it is a different culture and a different environment.
To survive, I had to adapt and take on some new behaviors. I had not had any other adult experience other than the military, except in church. So, I asked myself how would Peter or Paul, two flawed and fiery men, handle life where I was. That is where the 6 Rules started. I kind of think that something similar worked for Peter and Paul as they dealt with the infant church, and the huge pressure of false doctrine and cultural influences. Not too different from what I was doing. So far, I have managed to keep my job, make some pretty substantial improvements in our performance, and return the value of my salary back to the company. It has also helped my relationships outside work, especially with my children.
There is literally nothing I have ever encountered that did not improve when consider and approached through the prism of faith and the teachings of Jesus. Even for those that do not believe in Christ, to pattern a life and system of behaviors after His teaching is beneficial. Being better to each other is always a recipe for success, and a deterrent to stress and frustration.
But, as with most things human, there was a plateau of performance. Personally, I felt kind of stagnant, and that I was losing ground on what little gains I had made. Honestly, I don't like finding myself going backward, or not hitting targets. I am competitive by nature, and I absolutely detest not hitting my own targets. When things started to decline and crumble a bit, I spent a lot of time thinking and praying on it.
I am a LEAN practitioner at work. That is taking the principles of manufacturing most notable in Toyota's success, and applying them to our work place. One of the first questions after what is wrong, is how do you know? If you can't measure it, you can't quantify it. If you can't quantify it, you can't see improvement. If you can't see improvement, it is just a wishy washy slurry of good intentions and never followed through wishes.
That is the where the 5 Who's came from. I don't know if these exist in this format in some book I read years ago. These kind of simple things all blend together in the rear view mirror of stuff I have read. Honestly, I cannot recall seeing them this way, and I have an eerily good recall mechanism. All that being said to apologize if someone else has already expressed this, in this way.
1. Who have you ENCOURAGED today?
2. Who have you BLESSED today?
3. Who has BLESSED you today?
4. Who did you demonstrate Christ to today?
5. Who demonstrated Christ to you today?
There are lots of ways to measure lots of things. There are lots of situations that overcome your internal ability to process and to handle. There are pitfalls in every path, and stumbles on every journey. We are nothing but error producing machines, incapable of being perfected from any internal adjustment or desire. Like a car engine, to perfect performance, a master technician has to lay hands on it, and do the things only they can do, externally, to make it right and true.
That is why God sent us Jesus. Not only because Jesus was perfect, and we needed the example. We already had a comprehensive law that detailed how to be holy before God. Jesus came so that someone could literally put their masterful hands on us and perfect our performance and maintain it. We call Him alternately, Master, Teacher, Rabbi, Emmanuel, Messiah. We don't call him Mechanic, Technician, Engineer, Maintenance Man, but we could, and maybe we should.
The hope is that Christ will lay hands on us, literally. Adjust us, fine tune us, sustain and maintain us, through the power of the Holy Spirit in us. There is all this mystery and stuff attached to it, but it seems pretty straight forward to me. Inside this physical and emotional shell is a soul meant for perfection. The only way that happens is for the Holy Spirit to be there alongside, keeping that imperfect shell from binding and preventing growth of our soul. The only way the Holy Spirit gets there, is when Jesus takes us in hand.
What prompted all this today? Well, there are big things moving in our family's life. And there are big issues in my own professional environment. Things that make me feel ignored, undervalued, discounted and overlooked. It is not reality, it is perception. Reality is all about Christ, the Bible is pretty clear about that; the Way, the Truth, the Light... Satan is all about perception; Master of Lies, Deceiver, Tempter... I have had to dig down and remember that I am trying to live the Way, I am trying to tell the Truth, and I am working in the Light. I have to give up on perception, and focus on truth. Whatever happens.
I share this because I think there are many in that position for varying reasons and in varying forms. Nothing is ever perfect except God's love. If you can discipline yourself to focus on portraying God to others, and you can work to know you are a blessing and be thankful for those who bless you, you get deeper into the perfection of God's love. If you don't work to make your mind focus these ways, you stay wrapped up in the lies and deceit that are Satan's tools and tricks. He goes around like a roaring lion in my life, because he is who stirs up the temper and anger and dissatisfaction I feel. Those don't come from God.
God is happiest when we know we are at our weakest, and happy that His grace is made perfect there. He could care less about your title, your bank account, your car or your prospects in the world. Even the lillies of the field, sparrows...you get the picture.
Take on some Jesus when it feels most annoying and aggravating. Figure out what things are your Rules, and what your Who's look like. It won't fix it immediately. It won't make it better all by itself. And it will not absolve you of guilt and all that. But, it will change your mindset and maybe your focus. When that happens, Jesus is in the middle of a serious tuneup. Hang on for the ride, it is one beautiful road to roar down at top speed.
GLYASDI
No comments:
Post a Comment