A friend posted this on Facebook the other day.
It is from Unoffendable: How just one change can make all of life better by Brant Hansen. I haven’t read all the book, so I am only commenting about this quote).
We Christians know, at least we ought to know, God doesn’t need us to defend the faith, or the Bible, or even God. They all got along just fine without me for 2000 yours. I’m simply not indispensable. And, dear one, neither are you.
This is not the same as saying that we don’t matter,not at all. We do matter. But we are not in charge of “the preservation of Christianity in our present age”.
My job is not to be sure everyone around me behaves and believes appropriately. That is exhausting and not possible. Believe me when I tell you this. I spent many years trying to be sure everyone behaved and believed. And was happy. And ate healthy meals. And went to bed on time… you get the picture. It is exhausting. And futile.
Or this happens. Someone got something wrong on the internet! Someone posted something I think is wrong on Facebook! Making sure everyone is correct is exhausting. Sometimes we just need to let those things go.
Often I need to remind myself, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” A slightly better way is to remind myself of the Serenity prayer.
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)
Certainly there are some people I have greater responsibility for- family, close friends and so on.In those relationships I may feel the need to express a concern about someone’s behavior. But I still can’t make them listen. I still can’t make them behave.
As a Christian I think I have to have a concern for everyone. But that concern isn’t to make sure everyone behaves. My concern for others should focus on their well being. Do they have enough to eat? Are they physically safe? Can they get to the doctor? Those sorts of things.
The one I am in charge of is myself. It’s my behavior I need to be concerned about. I have is to make sure I behave. I have to try every day, well to be honest, every minute, to be a faithful Christian. That’s a full time job.
The odd thing is, if I attend to being a faithful Christian, I end up being more helpful to others. People are more willing to talk with me and to listen to what I say, if they know I’m not judging them. If they know I accept them for who they are, they know they can trust me. If they know I’m not going to “fix” them, they can tell me what is broken.
Odd how that works. Or maybe not? What do you think?
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