Not MY Problem...

Meet Greg - He's a hard working father of two married now for 10 years. He has a decent job, takes the kids to their games, and spends his spare time hanging out with his family and golfing when the weather is nice. Greg, like most of us, watches the news and reads the paper. He sees the people who are less fortunate than him but to be honest with you he thinks "Someone else is taking care of that" so he goes about his day not giving any additional thought to helping.

Throughout the course of a few years Greg loses his wife to cancer. He never thought much about donating to the "Cure for Cancer" fundraisers he'd seen until it struck his family. He wonders what he could have done to help - Could he have been more encouraging to those who lost a loved one? Could he have participated in the walks or made a small donation? It wasn't important to HIM at the time but it was important to others...why didn't he see that?

Gradually the loss of his wife takes a toll on him and he begins drinking heavily. Soon, he loses his job and custody of both kids. With no money and no incentive to wake up each day, he eventually loses his house and all his possessions. As he wonders from shelter to shelter occasionally sleeping on park benches or side streets, he reflects on all the times he saw others in this situation but did nothing. Honestly, he used to think they deserved it because they did it to themselves. Judging from what he'd seen they must be drunks who are just too lazy to work. Now he wonders how many of them are just like him - Who have fallen on hard times due to the loss of a loved one, a lay off at work, or some other financial hardship. And then he wonders, what could he have done to help? Could he have offered food, given money, volunteered at a shelter, or simply prayed for them?

Greg's heart begins to change and he starts to see the world with different eyes. He starts to see that "someone else" is not taking care of these people and that HE could have been the someone that helped but didn't. He is now painfully aware of the lost opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others and now he's the one who needs help and no one is there to help him get his life back together.

To be quite honest with you, Greg could be any one of us - How often are we focused solely on our own lives that we overlook the needs of others? How often do we judge someone else's situation without really knowing the journey they've been on? How often could we "give" - whether that means money, time, prayer, or simply offering kind words - but we don't? 

The bible says "God will give to each person according to what he has done"- Romans 2:6

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not saying that good deeds alone will reserve you a comfy place in heaven filled with all your wants and needs. But God does look at what He's given us and he expects that you will give to others according to what you have. So what do you have? Time? Money? An encouraging spirit? Are you giving it? When the day comes, what will God give YOU according to what you have done?

Whatever it is that you've been blessed with, GIVE it to others. You never know when you might be the person on the receiving end.....

The worst kind of illness.....

Michael, a man in his early 30's became incredibly ill. It didn't happen overnight, it was more of a gradual decline over a number of years. It started with small pains here and there but as time went on the pains got worse and so did his health. Every time a new pain showed up he moaned and complained. Each time the response from family and friends was "Why don't you go see a doctor?" His reply was always the same, "I'm not going to a doctor! He probably won't know what it is anyway, I'll just take care of it myself"

As the years passed the illness eventually took over his life. He was miserable all the time, his energy was gone and his quality of life was non existent. Still, even in his last days he refused to see a doctor for advice or treatment.

Towards the end, he became very bitter and angry. When family and friends asked him why he was so angry he replied "All these years I've been sick and that stupid doctor never did anything for me! I thought doctors were supposed to care about people! How can someone who just leaves me to die and lets me feel all this pain care??" His family was confused - How in the world could he be mad at someone that he never went to see? How could a doctor that he didn't even know help him? Still, the man blamed the doctor insisting that he was responsible.

The truth is, had the man just seen the doctor he could have been saved. He could have easily helped him manage his pain and given him back his life.

I see this situation all the time - not necessarily with illness but with anger, frustration, worry, and anxiety. And at the end of the day, who do we blame? God.  

 Why didn't God help us? How could he just leave us here to be miserable? 

The truth is, we never asked God for help. We never prayed, we never trusted in him, we never turned things over to him. So answer me this....How can we blame a doctor we never went to see?

Life or Death?

What is truly in your heart is projected when you speak. What do YOUR words say about your heart? 

"The tongue has the power of life and the tongue has the power of death" ~ Proverbs 18, Verse 21 

 Did you know...

• The average person has 30 conversations a day 
• 1/5 of our lifetime is spent just talking 
• If you were to record a persons words for 1 year, it would be enough to fill 132 books, 200 pages each

What are you posting to Facebook or Twitter? What do your texts say? What about your emails? When you go out with friends for lunch or dinner, are you speaking life into the conversation or are you tearing someone else down with your words? Have you encouraged someone today or have you focused only on their deficiencies? 

It's easy to convince ourselves that everything is ok and that we don't need to make any changes. So I want you to picture the person you respect most in this world..... Now I want you to imagine them pulling a book off your shelf and turning to a random page from last week. What would it say about you?