It’s almost freaky how over the last several months I’ve had this recurring conversation with people. Each exchange has been due to its own special set of circumstances, and each has involved different people, but the overall theme remains the same.
The over-riding question that has prevailed is this:
Why do things always work out for people who stink? Cheat? Lie? Steal (company time & resources)? Do the wrong thing? Take the shortcuts? Take advantage? Are lazy? Why…yet it always seems to work out so well for them…why?
Why? WHY??? And why then especially when there are those of us out there bustin’ our hineys every day, doing the right thing, working our fingers to the bone, telling the truth, playing by the rules, paying our taxes, helping others, trying to make a real difference, giving to church, going to church, living right and yet we can’t seem to catch a break?
WHY?
The flippant, easy answer is this: Life ain’t fair, sister! So suck it up and deal with it.
But I think we do ourselves, our friends and colleagues, and especially our children, a real disservice when we reduce it to that.
I think the answer lies much deeper than that…I’m willing to bet my every worldly possession that it is because our reward is not on earth. It’s not like I’ve known this or been as sure as I am today about this for my whole life. In fact, it has taken lots of reading of scripture and praying and thinking over the last 39.999999 years to fully grow into it, but I am really, really sure now.
There are plenty of instances in which to contemplate the concept:
(And I don’t mean for these examples to sound judgmental…I’m just sure we’ve all witnessed at least one of these where it wasn’t based on judgment, but on cold, hard fact that this is what was happening.)
Why does the person at work seem to get rewarded over and over even though she doesn’t play by the rules?
Why am I working so hard with such little gain, while I watch her get ahead by cheating and lying?
Why did I do the work, but she got the credit?
Why is she favored when she so blatantly lacks integrity by cheating the company?
…and of course there are the obvious ones…
Why did he die young when he was such a good person?
Why does one neighbor’s family struggle financially when they always do the right thing, but another neighbor’s family has everything they need and more, yet they are so nasty to others?
Why does she, of all people, have to suffer with cancer?
From being passed up for things I worked hard for in school all the way to a very specific instance with a co-worker a couple of weeks ago, this question has come up in my life over and over again. So maybe I write this now as much to remind myself as anyone else…
The only answer I’ve got is that our reward is not on earth. Our reward will be in Heaven. And while the here and now sometimes FEELS like an eternity, it is merely a blip on the screen. But what we do now, during that “blip”, determines where we get to live…with whom we get to live…for what really will be eternity.
I wish I had more…but these are my insights and totally my personal takes on it:
**The phrase “we reap what we sow” has eternal implications!
**Satan likes people who don’t live right, who don’t play by the “rules”, so he makes sure that he sets them up well to live the following lie: there are no negative consequences for your actions. (This helps lure more people to him.)
**God doesn’t actually promise that life will be sweet and rosy because we believe in Him. He promises that with a new life in Christ we will have eternal life and will never be without Him. He promises that eternal life with Him will be paradise and it is worth waiting for.
**God is hoping to see that we’ll hang in there, that we’ll stick with Him, that we’ll believe His promises, no matter what. He wants to see if we are easily dissuaded or if our words (claiming we follow Him) and our actions (actually following Him) match. He wants to see how easily we give up and throw in the towel.
**God is testing our integrity and our worldliness…testing us to see if we’ll “sell out” to instant gratification at some point.
**Adversity can, if we choose to let it, cause us to become better, stronger people. God also hopes we’ll use what we learn from our experiences to help others, especially our children who are looking to us to see why they should remain on the straight and narrow.
**God will reward us greatly in eternity when time after time he sees us choosing the right actions and the right attitudes when we know there is no earthly gain.
**He is keeping a record, a “report card” of sorts, and He will have a student-teacher conference with us about it someday. On that day all justice will be served for the many things we did right…and the many times we fell short of His glory.
**Every single thing…yes, every last little thing, no matter how small it may seem…that you do in His name is adding to YOUR cache of treasure in Heaven.
**God sees all of the works that you do, the true intent behind each one, and the depth of the core of your belief in Him and love for Him.
Luke 6:23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in
heaven.”
Matthew 16:27 “He will reward each according to his works.”
Matthew 19:21 “You will have treasure in heaven.”
Luke 14:14 “You will be blessed…for you shall be repaid at the resurrection.”
I can often be found saying the following two statements aloud to myself (apparently I need a lot of reminders):
1. The high road is a lonely road, but it is the one I choose to take.
2. My reward is not on earth.
That’s all I’ve got…no other answers…but I’m really sure that I’m right. And I’m really sure that it’ll be worth it.
If you only read one more book in your lifetime, read A Life God Rewards by Bruce Wilkinson. One of the most poignant things he says (and there are many) is this, “Our eternal destination is the consequence of what we believe on earth. Our eternal compensation is the consequence of how we behave on earth.”
Personally, I’d rather “suck it up and deal with it” even though “life ain’t fair”, trusting in God’s every move, choosing the lonely high road over and over again, believing in a wonderful loving Savior, so that I can secure my rightful place at the Feet of the Throne.
Of course when I get there, one of my very first questions to Jesus will be, “Remember X at work (can’t type the names or the situation here…)? What the heck was up with that? Cause, man, did I get the short end of the stick on that one!!”
I sincerely hope He’ll explain and follow up with, “Hey, girl…how you handled that…well done, my good and faithful servant! I knew your heart then and I remember it now, and it contributed to your storehouse of treasure.”
My prayer for all of us:
Dear God, help us stay on the straight and narrow even when it seems like the tougher path. Help us hold fast to Biblical truths, and help us find strength in Christian friends who will encourage us to keep running toward you even when that’s not the easiest or most convenient thing. Give us the stamina we need to cling to you instead of being wooed by the instant gratification of this world. Help us to be patient now so that we may spend a beautiful eternity with you in Heaven. And most importantly, give us the insight and the honesty to use our life experiences to teach our children to do the same. Amen.
Question: Do you believe your reward is in Heaven…I mean really believe?
Showing posts with label trials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trials. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Sunday, January 18, 2009
When Your Best is Total Crap
Let me begin by saying I am sorry for using the word crap. I rarely, rarely cuss…though I would be a big fat liar if I said I had never let one slip as I slammed on the brakes, hard, in heavy traffic on 465! But I do use those “in-between words” like “crap” because sometimes they are just the right way to describe something that no other word (crud, stink, etc.) quite does. So sorry if it offends, but not sorry enough to find another word! You will just have to suffer through in the name of literary art! (Please do pick up on the sarcasm.)
That said, let’s get to the heart of this blog entry: sometimes my best is total crap!
I despise mediocrity. It is my antithesis. It goes against everything I stand for. I think if you are not going to give your very best, forget it. Too many people make empty, half-hearted promises; they give no effort, have no perseverance, and have no follow-through. Of that I am not a fan! I say, show up and show up big…
In fact, our family motto is “Go big or go home”. For us it means that in everything you do, give it your all, do it all the way, 100% effort, under-promise and over-deliver every time. This doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect, but that we TRY, in all things, to give the very best that we have.
However, sometimes it backfires, blows up, falls apart, and in true “Go big or go home” style, when it does it backfires big!
Sometimes my best, all I have to give, is awe-inspiring; something I know is beyond my own ability, something really great, something truly lifted by the hand of God.
And sometimes, my best…the best I’ve got, the very best I can do, is utter, complete, total and 100% crap!
I tell you this so that I can tell the “world” (aka the 2 people who read this blog), that even when things turn out yucky, I still tried...really hard.
I tell you this so that when my children are grown and might look back on this, they would know that so many times I meant to do better than I actually did.
And I tell you this so that when your best completely falls apart, you will release the guilt, the expectations, the whatever-it-is-that-you-made-it-into, and know that your trying still counts (and that I would give you an A+ for effort!).
This “crap” thing happens to me all the time. It really makes me wonder what kind of mess I would be in if I didn’t despise mediocrity! Can you even imagine? Yikes!
It happens when I try to cook after too many sports-filled nights of having dinner wrapped in paper and handed through a window. The dinner I cook doesn’t “suit” my boys’ tastes, it doesn’t look good to me, Hubby wants to like it…he really tries. This happens all the time. Recently the first-born of the twins said, “Mom, maybe you should just give up cooking and we should eat at Wendy’s every night.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
In my business I strive to provide outstanding customer service, but sometimes…more often than I would like to admit…I make mistakes. I always “right” the “wrongs”…always. But with that comes, every time, a price of money or time or both. There is always an “expense” to me in fixing it, but it is the right thing to do and how I would want to be treated.
Sometimes at school I plan some wonderful thing, and while it turns out to still be valuable for teaching the concept, it’s nothing like how the movie played out in my mind.
Many times I unintentionally let people down, which is in my list of Top 5 Things I Never Want to Do to People. Sometimes it is due to circumstances beyond my control, like the other day when a snowball (literally, kind of!) effect caused me to be unable to keep a commitment to a friend. Sometimes it is my own doing…not because I wanted to, but because I over-committed, I didn’t think through the calendar, or I just plain (as horrifying as it is) forgot!
The point is, I mean to give 100% every stinkin’ time…yet over and over my very best attempts register as more like 4%.
I guess the lesson is that no matter how hard we try, there are times when we all will:
let people down
be misunderstood
do things wrong
make mistakes
mess up royally
not be heard
make someone mad
hurt someone’s feelings, and more…
…and all of it when we were trying to do the right thing!
Romans 9:15-17: For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
See, the “crap” reminds me that I can’t do anything without God. I can’t make anything work without Him, and I know it, but He is glad to remind me and I don’t want to forget.
God turns the crap into roses...like Crystal Lewis sings about in Beauty for Ashes. He takes what we mess up daily and makes it beautiful again. And the daily stuff of life is the constant reminder to us that we are supposed to lean on Him. Jesus wants us to lie at His feet asking for our ashes to be made beautiful. He wants us to need Him over and over and over again.
Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Job 36:19 Would your wealth or even all your mighty efforts sustain you so you would not be in distress?
May we all find miraculous, unyielding glory in our biggest mistakes, our grandest failures, our most severe disappointments. May God teach us humility and reliance on Him. And most importantly, may we relish in the times that things do go the way we plan and give God the credit for each and every little thing that goes right in our lives and in the world.
Question: When have you tried to give your best, but it all fell apart? What was the lesson for you in that moment?
That said, let’s get to the heart of this blog entry: sometimes my best is total crap!
I despise mediocrity. It is my antithesis. It goes against everything I stand for. I think if you are not going to give your very best, forget it. Too many people make empty, half-hearted promises; they give no effort, have no perseverance, and have no follow-through. Of that I am not a fan! I say, show up and show up big…
In fact, our family motto is “Go big or go home”. For us it means that in everything you do, give it your all, do it all the way, 100% effort, under-promise and over-deliver every time. This doesn’t mean that we have to be perfect, but that we TRY, in all things, to give the very best that we have.
However, sometimes it backfires, blows up, falls apart, and in true “Go big or go home” style, when it does it backfires big!
Sometimes my best, all I have to give, is awe-inspiring; something I know is beyond my own ability, something really great, something truly lifted by the hand of God.
And sometimes, my best…the best I’ve got, the very best I can do, is utter, complete, total and 100% crap!
I tell you this so that I can tell the “world” (aka the 2 people who read this blog), that even when things turn out yucky, I still tried...really hard.
I tell you this so that when my children are grown and might look back on this, they would know that so many times I meant to do better than I actually did.
And I tell you this so that when your best completely falls apart, you will release the guilt, the expectations, the whatever-it-is-that-you-made-it-into, and know that your trying still counts (and that I would give you an A+ for effort!).
This “crap” thing happens to me all the time. It really makes me wonder what kind of mess I would be in if I didn’t despise mediocrity! Can you even imagine? Yikes!
It happens when I try to cook after too many sports-filled nights of having dinner wrapped in paper and handed through a window. The dinner I cook doesn’t “suit” my boys’ tastes, it doesn’t look good to me, Hubby wants to like it…he really tries. This happens all the time. Recently the first-born of the twins said, “Mom, maybe you should just give up cooking and we should eat at Wendy’s every night.” I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
In my business I strive to provide outstanding customer service, but sometimes…more often than I would like to admit…I make mistakes. I always “right” the “wrongs”…always. But with that comes, every time, a price of money or time or both. There is always an “expense” to me in fixing it, but it is the right thing to do and how I would want to be treated.
Sometimes at school I plan some wonderful thing, and while it turns out to still be valuable for teaching the concept, it’s nothing like how the movie played out in my mind.
Many times I unintentionally let people down, which is in my list of Top 5 Things I Never Want to Do to People. Sometimes it is due to circumstances beyond my control, like the other day when a snowball (literally, kind of!) effect caused me to be unable to keep a commitment to a friend. Sometimes it is my own doing…not because I wanted to, but because I over-committed, I didn’t think through the calendar, or I just plain (as horrifying as it is) forgot!
The point is, I mean to give 100% every stinkin’ time…yet over and over my very best attempts register as more like 4%.
I guess the lesson is that no matter how hard we try, there are times when we all will:
let people down
be misunderstood
do things wrong
make mistakes
mess up royally
not be heard
make someone mad
hurt someone’s feelings, and more…
…and all of it when we were trying to do the right thing!
Romans 9:15-17: For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: "I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."
See, the “crap” reminds me that I can’t do anything without God. I can’t make anything work without Him, and I know it, but He is glad to remind me and I don’t want to forget.
God turns the crap into roses...like Crystal Lewis sings about in Beauty for Ashes. He takes what we mess up daily and makes it beautiful again. And the daily stuff of life is the constant reminder to us that we are supposed to lean on Him. Jesus wants us to lie at His feet asking for our ashes to be made beautiful. He wants us to need Him over and over and over again.
Galatians 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?
Job 36:19 Would your wealth or even all your mighty efforts sustain you so you would not be in distress?
May we all find miraculous, unyielding glory in our biggest mistakes, our grandest failures, our most severe disappointments. May God teach us humility and reliance on Him. And most importantly, may we relish in the times that things do go the way we plan and give God the credit for each and every little thing that goes right in our lives and in the world.
Question: When have you tried to give your best, but it all fell apart? What was the lesson for you in that moment?
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