Never Beyond: It’s Not Easy Being Green
People of the Second Chance are at it again and with my favorite Muppet…Animal! He just makes me smile. But, sometimes there are people that don’t.
I have a friend, a very dear mentor and person who disciples me, who is never 'good'. If you ask, this person is in pain, tired, over-busy, etc., etc., etc. Someone who teaches US to put on our smiles and even follows suit, but the words don’t match the teaching. It makes me not want to ask how they are.
I have told my child for years to chew with his mouth shut. I invited him to watch me eat a whole meal to try to catch me chewing with my mouth open. He just doesn’t get it. He’s better than he was, but he still needs reminders regularly. These reminders include other daily hygiene habits such as brushing his teeth. Really? Why do I need to remind my 17-year-old child to brush his teeth?!
I’ve been sitting as a super-user at work that will have me training my coworkers on our new computer system. A system which is supposed to go live at the beginning of December. I attend these meetings by tele-conference so that when I get frustrated, I can put my phone on mute and yell at the phone without anyone hearing me. Some of my coworkers just aren’t getting it fast enough. I go home after sitting in these meetings from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM very frustrated.
But here’s the thing. Who am I to think that what I know, do, act like, or say is perfect? If I really think about it, and I rarely do, there are probably things that I do that drive other people crazy. What I really need to do it have a little patience, be gracious, and merciful. We are all participants in this thing we call life and life is too short to start placing our warped expectations on everyone else when we are all messed up ourselves. I admit it. I am a very imperfect vessel. Besides, I'm not "The Standard". But, thank God, I am Never Beyond His mercy and grace.
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:7
Originally posted November 20, 2011