LIVE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

I am sympathetic to mankind.  We struggle.  We celebrate.  We dream.  And, we fear. Try as we may, the yo-yo-istic lifestyle seems to be ours.

Much of our lives are divided between search and avoid.  We are on the constant prowl for success and satisfaction while doing our best to refrain from stepping on the landmines of injury and failure.  Dare we pay attention to the good without the feeling the bad is creeping in?

It is not enough to want.  How many times have we walked that alley?  Want isn't the element of living.  Accepting is.

Jesus' both being loved and mistreated are to be accepted as our personal approach to authentic and meaningful life. We learn to accept the Jesus highlights in our walk as we make progress.  The true test, however, seems to be when we learn to accept Jesus' trail to the rugged side just as enthusiastically during the injuries and disappointments.  He shined in both, you know.

So, what about you?  Are you living to make a difference in the success realm only; hoping to avoid the discouraging side?  Anybody can pull off life with that half-goal.

We are called by God to worship and endure; to celebrate and to die.  Christianity isn't a big people's do-good, go-places club.  It is a deep and extreme mixture of living beyond our imaginations while surrendering ourselves so that others can come to life.  We are the next Jesus for he lives within to reach out.

The Holy Spirit is implanted in us at baptism; not so we can have a spiritual trinket from heaven, but so we can contain the power from above to do the impossible....both of living and dying.

I suggest that too many cannot find happiness in life because one has concluded that such is to possess a steady array of self-satisfaction.  It is not.  It is learning to negotiate the rough terrain of interruption as well as travel the high-speed highways of accomplishment.

If we are going to make a difference, a big shift toward such dream would be to accept the full terrain of Jesus.  His death was as significant as his birth.  Both save others.  We are to follow.