In a world full of hate, be kind.

When everyone holds a grudge, be forgiving.

Where no one speaks the truth, be honest.

If everyone else is compromising their values, show integrity.

When other people’s words are vulgar, speak gracefully.

In a world of self-absorbed people, value others.

When no one seems to care, be compassionate.

If everyone else is faithless, be faithful.

The world is full of people, and all of us can choose what type of people we become.

You can look that word up and learn.

It is easy to do in 2022. 

But you still need to surround yourself with good teachers, mentors, and people to support you. It is possible to be an autodidact in faith, but the community of believers is here to help you. You can do it alone, but you don’t have to.  

What do you get intense about?

What topic generates excitement and energy in you?

Whenever you get to do it, you can hardly wait.

What area gets you to talk louder and perhaps a little faster?

What subject brings out your strongest opinions and makes you a tad bit aggressive?

The prophet in the Old Testament named Jeremiah said, “But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak any more in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9 – NIV 2011)

Jeremiah was intense about God and his word.

Are you?

Interpreting events is impossible without all the facts. Proper understanding can only be achieved with all the information.

It happened in a Walmart bathroom (please stay with me). I walked in and could hear a boy sobbing in the accessible stall. His father sounded like he was helping him, although his voice was calm and quiet. The young boy was having a fit. An occasional scream, with wailing and tears, kept coming. The dad remained nearly silent as he worked with the boy.

In my mind, all I could think was, “That little boy needs discipline. There is nothing in the world that requires this kind of reaction.” I wondered how that father could patiently endure his son’s tantrum. I was only in the bathroom for a few minutes, and my blood was already starting to boil. Finally, I thought, “This is almost unbearable to hear; maybe I should say something.”

Just then, the man opened the stall door, and all was revealed. The man appeared in his late 30s and held the whimpering boy in his arms. The young man had down syndrome, and tears rolled down his cheeks. The dad held him tight and only whispered, “It’s okay. You are fine.” 

Suddenly all my feelings change. In a fraction of a second, I went from angry to sympathetic. My emotions wholly transformed once I knew the truth of the situation. 

I wonder how often I have misread encounters because I did not have all the information.

Always remember that before you form an opinion about a person or a situation in their life, it is best to find out the total truth. The person who makes you angry more likely needs your help or sympathy than anything else.

When I was seven years old, I saw the movie “Breaking Away” and wanted to buy a ten-speed bicycle. My parents let me purchase one, and I tried riding it everywhere, replaying each scene and dreaming of being a world-class bike racer.

Not too long after, I saw the third “Rocky” movie. Then I rented the video of the first and second “Rocky,” and suddenly I wanted to be a boxer. I would shadow box in the garage, started exercising, and even considered eating raw eggs but chickened out before I tried it.

Each underdog story I watched or read would inspire me to try something new. It would show me the hard work behind the scenes and the joy of reward for your efforts.

Lately, I have been wondering, if the story of my life was told to other people, what would they be inspired to do? Is there anything in my journey that would motivate people to live differently? Would they see my work and the blessings I received from it?

It is easy to be inspired to do something, but it is far more complicated to be inspiring.  

Live in such a way that you are an inspiration to others. 

Whenever I go on vacation, I like to visit different Churches and worship with strangers. It helps me to stay connected to the global community of believers, but it also allows me to open my eyes to new things.

After you have attended the same Church for at least four weeks, you become blind to things. Then, you start developing patterns of behavior and slowly feel like an insider to the community.

Sometimes we need to shake things up to remember what it is like to be a visitor somewhere. To be reminded of what it is like to experience something for the first time as an outsider. This will help you to be more sympathetic and thoughtful to the guests who come to your home Church. It will also give you the opportunity to meet new people and connect with them. There is no downside to changing your Sunday morning routine.

Why don’t you try it sometime? You can do it without ever leaving home. Park in a different place in the parking lot. Walk into Church on a new path. Shake hands with people you do not know. Sit in a part of the auditorium where you usually do not sit. Move to the front or sit closer to another family. Smile and sing loudly. After the program, repeat the process. Talk to more new people, shake hands and be friendly to strangers. Then, walk out in a different way.  

Doing Church in a new way will open our eyes to see the world from a different perspective and may help you be a better Christian; plus, it will keep the Church a wonderful place to attend for everyone. 

In 1991 a movie came out with William Hurt called “The Doctor.”  It is the story of a doctor who seems heartless until he gets cancer and must undergo treatment himself. He learns to be compassionate along his journey while making a friend of another cancer patient.

In the end, the main character is struggling with feelings of loneliness. And his new-found friend, before her death, sent him a note. I think about her words regularly as a reminder to put my guard down. 

Here is what she wrote:

“There was a farmer who had a lot of fields, and he kept all of the birds and creatures away from his crops with traps and fences. He was very successful … but he was very lonely. So, one day, he stood in the middle of his fields to welcome the animals. He stayed there from dawn to dusk, with his arms outstretched, calling to them. But, not a single animal came. Not a single creature appeared. They were terrified, you see, of the farmer’s new Scarecrow … just let down your arms, and we’ll all come to you.”

And more garbage will follow it.

If you spend time on social media, everything you do is tracked through sophisticated computer technology. This way, companies like Facebook can give you content like the previous stuff you viewed. Places like YouTube will then provide you with video recommendations similar to that one video. Companies will then target their advertising to people who visit those sites and look at that type of article or product. 

The result is that you can be lost in an algorithm that feeds you the same garbage over and over. Instead of opening your mind to new ideas and differing viewpoints, you are on a treadmill of recycled thinking. Sure, this can have an upside, but it can be equally dangerous. 

Perhaps one great test of whether you are being fed garbage is to take a break from all social media and see what happens to your thinking. Does your attitude improve? Does your thinking about God and faith get more clear? Are you a better person when you are not just watching whatever is being fed to you online? If so, the problem may be that you are on a diet of garbage.

And as the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.”

Don’t spend 15 minutes complaining about a 30-minute job. Don’t do it before or after the work is done. All you do is increase the amount of time you spend on that single project.

Complaining is never productive and does not correlate to improving a situation. All it does is keep you focused on something that doesn’t deserve your time.  

Perhaps this is why the Bible tells people to do everything without grumbling, arguing, or complaining (Philippians 2:14).

Instead of taking your time to complain, take it to be thankful. It will not change the work you need to do, but it will change your attitude about it.

The first time I met Bob Scott, he walked up to me at a meeting and started speaking to me like I was an old friend. His son Mark had been my professor, but I had never met the man. But his vision was what had taken me to Iowa. Mark had told me that his dad had been down on his knees praying in the basement of a Church parsonage when he had the idea to start a Church planting organization in Iowa. Now, some 40-odd years later, that organization had called me to plant a new Church in that state. Every year the mission held an annual business meeting, and Bob returned to participate. Without fail, he came up to me every year and talked to me like an old friend in ministry. Without knowing it, his life and work changed my life, and the Church that was started is still changing lives along with the dozens of other Churches that started through that organization. Last Monday, Bob passed from this life, and the world lost a spiritual giant.

I personally never met Jack Cottrell. My experience of his teaching has all been secondhand. He was a professor for almost 50 years, during which time he wrote books and more articles than I can count. For the last couple of years, he has organized his related writings into books on various Biblical topics. I have a dozen of his books on my shelves, and I refer to them almost weekly. His book on the doctrines of the Bible is one I use whenever I have a question or need clarity on an issue. Jack’s life work has made me a more knowledgeable believer and effective preacher. Last Friday, Jack passed from this life, and the world lost a spiritual giant. 

These two men’s deaths have left a void in my life and ministry, even though they were never close personal friends. Their work in the Lord touched me and influenced how I do ministry. All I can think about is who is going to fill their shoes. Where are the people who are going to lead new ministries and write scholarly books? Where are the people who will put their arms around young preachers and try to help them improve and reassure them that they are not alone? Who is going to be the next spiritual giant?

While thinking and praying about this, God reminded me of a simple truth. Even spiritual giants grow one inch at a time. They get up daily, read their Bible, say their prayers, and serve the Lord. They do it day after day after day over a lifetime. Neither of these men set out to be something special for the kingdom of God, but their consistent commitment to following the Lord made them that way.

The people who will become the next generation of influencers for the kingdom of God are those who surrender to Jesus every single day for a lifetime. Then at the end of their life, they have cast an enormous shadow, and people will be sad to see them go but thankful for the time we got to learn from them.