One of the questions that I am reflecting on in regards to the book promotion I spoke of before is "What did you learn from our books?"
Tom Davis writes about a perspective of holding onto things in our live verses giving them away. He challenges the reader with the idea that often we live with a "never enough" mentality that stems from fear. He contrasts that by describing how Jesus lived his life with a "what can I offer?" mentality.
Quote from page 41-42:"Jesus didn’t have a “never enough” mentality. He lived and breathed a “what can I offer?” mentality. It didn’t matter where he ewas or what he was doing. He always took the time to help someone in need.”
I want to have Jesus' mentality, but my honest reflection goes as follows:
I’m not sure if I agree with that. Jesus took time away to spend with God and didn’t rush off to help Lazarus and abandon what the calling he currently had was. He often drew away to lonely places to become filled up. It is dangerous for me to think that I always have to stop and help others… I feel like this is something that could keep from doing work that God already has me doing?? Maybe its that my personality and tendencies are to be extreme and self-sacrificial… I’m not sure. Maybe its “my agenda” that I am holding onto too tightly.???
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1 comment:
Oh yeah, it might help if you had a bit more of my prior reflection to understand where I was coming from...
“Why don’t we act? Why don’t we choose to make a difference? One reason is because we’re afraid. We spend most of our time trying to protect what we have, fearing what would happen if that went away. When we do this, we become shackled to our possessions. In essence, we limit our range of motion. We can’t reach far enough to offer compassion because our arms are too busy holding all that we own. If, on the other hand, we recognize that what we have is a gift, then we can extend our reach. We discover that we can use a potion of our gift to improve someone else’s life, maybe even to save someone else’s life.” P. 39
Its easy for me to look at other people (my husband, people in my church, my friends) and point out where I see them hording… its much more of a challenge to look at my own life and see what I hold onto that keeps me from giving, from reaching out and from taking steps to help others.
I want to be generous with my time and energy and money. I think that I am for the most part, but I want to hold the above perspective on a regular basis.
I will start praying that God will open my eyes so that I can see what I am holding onto.
thus, maybe I am holding onto my agenda
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