In this day of fast paced living and instant communication it is easy to grow callused about the needs of others. Though we have the technology to stay connected like never before it is amazing how many people are disconnected from one another and how few people really seem to care.
Take the man or woman who goes to work and finds multiple emails to respond to, receives phone calls all day long which need to be returned but keep him or her occupied from getting the rest of their work done, get dozens of text messages that need attention, and face the never ending onslaught of meeting on top of meeting which must be attended with cherry attitudes though hidden behind exhausted mental and emotional frames.
Even while driving in the sanctuary of our vehicles we can be interrupted by phone calls and text messages. By the time we get through the day and deal with our families we are emotionally depleted and want to sink into the refuge of our homes behind the computer, lost in a book, or vegetating in front of the television. Even at home the phone can keep ringing about work, school, church, and or needy friends who have a burden to share.
If we are not careful we can grow so hard hearted that we begin to resent the phone calls, the texts, the emails, and the constant demand for our attention. We can slowly drift toward isolation and an uncaring attitude toward family, co-workers, community members, and fellow Christians. If our hearts are not daily tenderized by the Holy Spirit we may begin to hate the continual pulls for our attention. We start to pull away people and withdraw into ourselves.
It takes courage to really care about people. How are you supposed to love, care, and offer compassionate counsel when your emotional reserves are depleted and you have nothing left to give? I have two simple suggestions. One is to simplify our lives. Did God ever intend for us to live at the paces we are living in this day and age? We equate being busy with being Godly but the truth is that many who are busy and overcommitted are coasting through life on spiritual fumes with little to no authenticity in their service or caring for others. We are so scheduled that we spend far too many days rushing from one appointment to the next with little to no down times in between. We hurry to meet this person, break the speed limit to get to the next meeting, keep our nose to the grind stones to meet deadlines, only to hurry home to get the kids to ball practice, all the while thinking about all the work still to be done. In the middle of this scenario somebody walks up to you with major troubles and tries to talk to you and you can only think about getting out of this conversation. It takes courage to deny yourself and to enter into another person’s private pain and really care to get involved.
With the RPM’s or our lives continually red lined or maxed out, we are headed for trouble. If we do not follow the example of Jesus who often withdrew from the crowds for spiritual replenishment and renewal [Mark 6:30-32] we will not care about others and grow to resent their intrusions into our lives. This is not the heart of Jesus. He often was interrupted by people with problems and time and time [Mark 5:1-42] again He cared, He loved, and He got involved. If we could simplify our lives, walk slower, care with more compassion, reflect deeper, listen longer, and build the buffers of silence and solitude into our lives more, perhaps we too would have the courage to care for others. It might start with driving a little slower and relaxing behind the wheel. It might involve scheduling some lunch dates alone in secluded places with the Lord. Maybe it might mean looking people square in the eye at the office or in the community and prayerfully asking God how you can help or minister to that person. We were not created to live at such highly stressful pace of lives. It affects our children as well. They crave the opportunity to stay at home and just be kids instead of always having to be on the go.
Think about the pace of life many decades ago. People walked more, took more time to visit with the neighbors, sat down for family meals more often, enjoyed Sunday afternoon drives, and shared their lives on more intimate levels. People laughed together, cried together, suffered together, rejoiced together, worked together, and courageously cared about one another. Today we do well to know even a few of our neighbors. We seldom have time for friends to come over and get so wrapped up in our own lives that we can be oblivious to the deep sufferings being experienced by those all around us.
If we could slow down long enough to walk slowly through the crowds and get our noses out of our Blackberries or I-phones we could start to really connect with people. This will not happen until we really are able to slow down the pace of our lives and simplify them. Slowing our lives down will not happen without intentional and determined effort. Living at a slower rhythm will take some adjustment and getting used to but I am convinced the rewards will be bountiful and we will be able to care for others like we have never been able to do before.
Read through the gospels. Jesus was a man on mission with purpose but He never seemed to be in a hurry. He always had time for people. Mainly people came to Him with problems; sickness, evil spirits, and sin. He always cared. His mission was giving glory to the Father through helping people. He spoke truth to people. He healed people. He counseled people. He loved people. He forgave people. He rebuked people. He made time for people. People were welcome intruders into His life. He walked slowly through the crowds and connected with people on deep emotional and spiritual levels. He cared.
There is a difference between Jesus and us. Jesus’ very nature was love. Ours is sinful and selfish. It still is. Loved oozed out of Jesus like water from an underground spring. It bubbled up because it was His nature. How do you find love like that? We are pretty good at offering superficial love but how do you love others on the deepest levels? Sadly, we can’t do it. Sooner or later we will come to an end of our emotional resources. There will come a day when we sigh and say to ourselves, “I have nothing left to give others.” Ahh! There is hope though.
We can courageously love and care for others when we let the love of Jesus, that is the love that originates from Jesus, consume and replenish us on a daily basis. We trade our burdens (our own and the burdens of others) for the deep reservoir of the love of Jesus and we love people with His supernatural love.
That kind of love is genuine. NO more faking care but we can offer people the true unconditional love we have drunk deeply for ourselves. We can care for others because Jesus enables us to care for them. We can connect with people and love them in spite of their faults because we have experienced His deep love in us and through us. He gives us the courage to care and the emotional stamina to get involved.
When we learn to simplify our lives and to love others through Jesus, I think life will take on a whole new meaning. Life will be more rewarding as we get connected with people and share life together.
If you are one of those people who resent the needs and demands of people let me encourage you to heed this little article and carve out time for seclusion to be refreshed by the Jesus who always loved courageously. Bask in His love like a person sun bathing. Once you have been filled with His love, pour out His love on others genuinely and then retreat to be filled again. How I pray this helps us to not only love and care but cause others to love and care for us when we find ourselves on the needing end. Lord, please give us courage to care for people like you did and like you still do.
Take the man or woman who goes to work and finds multiple emails to respond to, receives phone calls all day long which need to be returned but keep him or her occupied from getting the rest of their work done, get dozens of text messages that need attention, and face the never ending onslaught of meeting on top of meeting which must be attended with cherry attitudes though hidden behind exhausted mental and emotional frames.
Even while driving in the sanctuary of our vehicles we can be interrupted by phone calls and text messages. By the time we get through the day and deal with our families we are emotionally depleted and want to sink into the refuge of our homes behind the computer, lost in a book, or vegetating in front of the television. Even at home the phone can keep ringing about work, school, church, and or needy friends who have a burden to share.
If we are not careful we can grow so hard hearted that we begin to resent the phone calls, the texts, the emails, and the constant demand for our attention. We can slowly drift toward isolation and an uncaring attitude toward family, co-workers, community members, and fellow Christians. If our hearts are not daily tenderized by the Holy Spirit we may begin to hate the continual pulls for our attention. We start to pull away people and withdraw into ourselves.
It takes courage to really care about people. How are you supposed to love, care, and offer compassionate counsel when your emotional reserves are depleted and you have nothing left to give? I have two simple suggestions. One is to simplify our lives. Did God ever intend for us to live at the paces we are living in this day and age? We equate being busy with being Godly but the truth is that many who are busy and overcommitted are coasting through life on spiritual fumes with little to no authenticity in their service or caring for others. We are so scheduled that we spend far too many days rushing from one appointment to the next with little to no down times in between. We hurry to meet this person, break the speed limit to get to the next meeting, keep our nose to the grind stones to meet deadlines, only to hurry home to get the kids to ball practice, all the while thinking about all the work still to be done. In the middle of this scenario somebody walks up to you with major troubles and tries to talk to you and you can only think about getting out of this conversation. It takes courage to deny yourself and to enter into another person’s private pain and really care to get involved.
With the RPM’s or our lives continually red lined or maxed out, we are headed for trouble. If we do not follow the example of Jesus who often withdrew from the crowds for spiritual replenishment and renewal [Mark 6:30-32] we will not care about others and grow to resent their intrusions into our lives. This is not the heart of Jesus. He often was interrupted by people with problems and time and time [Mark 5:1-42] again He cared, He loved, and He got involved. If we could simplify our lives, walk slower, care with more compassion, reflect deeper, listen longer, and build the buffers of silence and solitude into our lives more, perhaps we too would have the courage to care for others. It might start with driving a little slower and relaxing behind the wheel. It might involve scheduling some lunch dates alone in secluded places with the Lord. Maybe it might mean looking people square in the eye at the office or in the community and prayerfully asking God how you can help or minister to that person. We were not created to live at such highly stressful pace of lives. It affects our children as well. They crave the opportunity to stay at home and just be kids instead of always having to be on the go.
Think about the pace of life many decades ago. People walked more, took more time to visit with the neighbors, sat down for family meals more often, enjoyed Sunday afternoon drives, and shared their lives on more intimate levels. People laughed together, cried together, suffered together, rejoiced together, worked together, and courageously cared about one another. Today we do well to know even a few of our neighbors. We seldom have time for friends to come over and get so wrapped up in our own lives that we can be oblivious to the deep sufferings being experienced by those all around us.
If we could slow down long enough to walk slowly through the crowds and get our noses out of our Blackberries or I-phones we could start to really connect with people. This will not happen until we really are able to slow down the pace of our lives and simplify them. Slowing our lives down will not happen without intentional and determined effort. Living at a slower rhythm will take some adjustment and getting used to but I am convinced the rewards will be bountiful and we will be able to care for others like we have never been able to do before.
Read through the gospels. Jesus was a man on mission with purpose but He never seemed to be in a hurry. He always had time for people. Mainly people came to Him with problems; sickness, evil spirits, and sin. He always cared. His mission was giving glory to the Father through helping people. He spoke truth to people. He healed people. He counseled people. He loved people. He forgave people. He rebuked people. He made time for people. People were welcome intruders into His life. He walked slowly through the crowds and connected with people on deep emotional and spiritual levels. He cared.
There is a difference between Jesus and us. Jesus’ very nature was love. Ours is sinful and selfish. It still is. Loved oozed out of Jesus like water from an underground spring. It bubbled up because it was His nature. How do you find love like that? We are pretty good at offering superficial love but how do you love others on the deepest levels? Sadly, we can’t do it. Sooner or later we will come to an end of our emotional resources. There will come a day when we sigh and say to ourselves, “I have nothing left to give others.” Ahh! There is hope though.
We can courageously love and care for others when we let the love of Jesus, that is the love that originates from Jesus, consume and replenish us on a daily basis. We trade our burdens (our own and the burdens of others) for the deep reservoir of the love of Jesus and we love people with His supernatural love.
That kind of love is genuine. NO more faking care but we can offer people the true unconditional love we have drunk deeply for ourselves. We can care for others because Jesus enables us to care for them. We can connect with people and love them in spite of their faults because we have experienced His deep love in us and through us. He gives us the courage to care and the emotional stamina to get involved.
When we learn to simplify our lives and to love others through Jesus, I think life will take on a whole new meaning. Life will be more rewarding as we get connected with people and share life together.
If you are one of those people who resent the needs and demands of people let me encourage you to heed this little article and carve out time for seclusion to be refreshed by the Jesus who always loved courageously. Bask in His love like a person sun bathing. Once you have been filled with His love, pour out His love on others genuinely and then retreat to be filled again. How I pray this helps us to not only love and care but cause others to love and care for us when we find ourselves on the needing end. Lord, please give us courage to care for people like you did and like you still do.
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