Everyone has complainers

We all are judged. Whether we admit it or not we live in a society that judges people. You can look at what’s popular on TV and it’s full of people judging: The Voice, America’s Got Talent, American Idol, Survivor, So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother to name a few. I am a huge sports fan, ask any person why their sports teams didn’t win the championship and we have a list of complaints.

I love to watch the drafts of professional sports and it’s all about judging a person. While every job has this, these drafts show all your strengths and weakness. They say what you do well and what you do horrible in. On top of that, there are stars with a ton of potential but have some character flaws, sometimes it keeps them from making millions. Could you imagine being judged in primetime television?

Everyone is judged. Paul is one of my favorite biblical authors, yet this is what people said about Paul: he has no power or authority, he is an extremely good writer but once you meet him he is unimpressive and a lousy speaker. Man, this is what they said about the writer of a dozen or so books in the Bible and his teachings are still looked at widely today? People didn’t like Paul? As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “I get no respect.”

Everyone is judged, but how do you respond to being judged? Paul responded to this in 2 Corinthians 10:11-12, “Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present. We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

Paul looked at the actions of his enemies. Rather then looking at people the way God looks at them, they had typical human standards. This is like the armchair quarterback syndrome. I can watch the Lions and tell everything that is wrong with the team, but I also never played football other then a year of fully padded flag football. In other words, I have no way to truly judge how good or bad the Lions are. Human standards often fail us.

It’s funny when we look at churches and judge them by numbers. People can judge churches by how many people come in the doors. While there is a little truth to this it can miss the whole point. I had a friend share this info from Doug Fields, it went something like: judging if a church is doing well by numbers is like saying how is your family doing and you respond 4.

When we as Christians focus our goals by human standards we can fail a ton. Succeeding in the world is not the same as succeeding to God. When Christians judge based on human standards rather then Godly standards it can make us look like a fool.

What gives us the right to judge? Do we have the standards of God when we look at other people? Does God care more and think someone is successful by how much money they have? Does God care what kind of car you drive or home you own? Does God care about what type of electronic devices you have or the clothes you wear? Does God care what degrees you have? If these things don’t matter as much to God, why do we put so much emphasis in them?

If we look at the world the way Jesus did, it would change our perspective on how we view life. Do you need to look at life and the world differently? If so, what do you need to change about how you judge?

Have a great day.

If it rains cats and dogs would you get a rabies shot

When it rains it pours.  Sometimes in life we feel we can’t get ahead,  we weathered a storm only to find out were in the eye of the hurricane. Life can get hard, and still get worse after that.

There were some athletes I followed who went through some nasty injuries.  One of which tore his ACL his freshman year in high school.  He fully recovered by the next football season and we ready to go. A week into the season, he tore his other ACL, he was down.  He fully recovered from it and was ready for the next season.  In order to play football, he wore two super knee braces.  While playing running back, he ran through the gap, his knee braces hit each other causing him to fall.  He was tackled without being tackled. He decided to stop playing football after that.

Sometimes in life, we weather a storm and things can get worse as in Paul’s case.  Paul got everyone saved from the storm. Next they were shipwrecked on an island (People from the island came to help them out) he was out helping them collect brushwood for a fire when a venomous snake bit him.  The native islanders thought this dude had ticked off God.  This is the next part of the story in some of Acts 28:4-6…

“The man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live. But Paul shook the snake off in the fire and suffered no ill effects. The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.”

They thought Paul was bad and that is why he deserved to be punished twice.

They stayed away from this man, but it was not was it seemed.  Going off the Princess Bride, “I do not think that situation  means what you think it means.” Paul survived the situation, but how many times do you feel like that?

You make it through a bad situation only to get hit with another one.  A couple of weeks ago I came to an intersection where there was an accident, the lady had kids in her vehicle and was pretty angry/frustrated.  The kids were fine, but she was almost in tears saying, “My dad is going to kill me.” It ends up she just bought this vehicle and on the way home was in a crash with a couple of thousands in damages even though everything was ok.

Bad things can happen in life, but will you let those bad things consume you? Paul survived a nasty shipwreck and then he got bit by a venomous snake (I don’t recommend testing God on this one). He didn’t start saying “Why me God, why me?” He wasn’t depressed from this reason or think things were going to get worse. 

Have faith that life will improve and can improve.  Paul was able to make through some awful situations because of his faith in God and you can too.  Even through the worst of times God can offers us comfort.  Don’t give up on life because it won’t give up on you.  Things can and will get better.

Have a great day.

Like Destiny’s Child are you a survivor

There are times in life things don’t go accordingly to plan. New Year’s resolution can always be an interesting time of reflection. We reflect on what we don’t like and vow to change it. Usually these revolve around self-image, losing weight, being happier, eating better etc.

How often do we focus on other people with our resolutions? Paul had to focus on other people to save himself. Paul was going through a rough time. He was being transported on a boat and hurricane like forces were tearing the boat apart. 14 days the craziness went on and the result was the crew going that entire time without eating and wondering if they had any chance of living.

The crew was lowered the lifeboat down and to save themselves. Paul told them if they didn’t stay with the boat, they would die. They stayed with boat. Paul was able to convince the people to eat for the first time in 14 days while this storm was going on. Even with a storm going on, Paul did this in Acts 27:34-36…

“Now I urge you to take some food.  You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head. After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all.  Then he broke it and began to eat.  They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.”

They survived. Even in front of a group of people that came from different faiths, he gave thanks to God. What if the captain of the boat was thickheaded and thought he could survive on his own? He could have said, you’re just a prisoner and your opinion doesn’t matter to me.

Where would they be if that happened? Sometimes our own thickheaded thinking keeps us from accomplishing resolutions. Often our resolutions revolve around what we want selfishly. What if we focused on others? What if this year we decided we were going to forgive someone else that we haven’t forgiven? Maybe you have been fighting with someone for a while and you’re waiting for them to apologize first. A good resolution can be to reconcile a broken relationship.

Often we focus so much on our selfish desires of getting in shape or eating healthier rather than repairing a relationship. God cares more about your ability to forgive than your ability to look better with your earthly body. I have been in an interesting spot lately. I have seen a lot of relationships struggle and it can all go back to selfish desires.

People want to be forgiven and be right rather than forgive other people. If the captain of the boat was focused on being right, 276 people would have died on Paul’s boat. Instead he was humble and listened to the advice of a prisoner. What can be a true resolution for you…

Forgiving someone else?

Asking someone for forgiveness?
Showing grace to someone who hurt you?
Maybe going to counseling and applying what you learn to your own life?

You can be a survivor, one who goes through a bad situation and comes out strong in the end. Are you ready to be the one to take that first step? You can have a great resolution. You can be a survivor of a bad situation.

Have a great day.