Where did the time go? One minute you’re chuckling at her first passport picture then it seems like you’re filling out college applications! There’s a lot that happens in between, but it can feel like an eternity in the blink of an eye. My daughter recently left our home to begin a new life in her “passport country.” The foreboding question she often has been asked is, “What’s next? What are your plans?” For any person, that line of questioning can be intimidating. I saw in my daughter’s eyes the pressure and the worry that what she had planned was subpar to expectations that people may have had for her. Would people expect her to say she was attending a ministry school? Signing up for some sort of ministry venue? Or perhaps pursuing a degree at a university?
This type of pressure is not isolated to graduates. We feel it, too. What’s ministry going to do next? Where is your next assignment? How many people are you ministering to? The numbers and the plans are all-consuming and somehow we feel the pressure that it has to meet some unforeseeable standard. All these decisions and expectations can render us indecisive and cause us to feel foolish. That plea for wisdom and direction can feel so desperate. Wondering how everyone will perceive our decisions and actions can be paralyzing. I wonder if Jesus ever felt that pressure or perhaps He was so secure in His mission and His relationship with His Father that those questions fell to the wayside.
Jesus was asked once what was the most important thing to do. Because following the commandments was so important to the Jewish people, one of them asked which commandment was most important. I would have seen that akin to being asked, “So, what are you going to do now? What’s going to be the most impactful?” etc. His answer was so simple yet so full of wisdom. To paraphrase, “Love God with all your heart and love people well.”
Love God. Love people. It does not have to be complicated. It does not have to have a grand 10-year plan supplied with graphs and contemporary strategies. Plans are great. Goals are important. When decisions leave you clueless, you can’t go wrong if your actions reflect your love for God and show your love of God to others. By loving Him, our actions will in turn love people well. The other stuff is just details. The results will fall according to His plan, not necessarily ours. We have placed so much importance on the details that we sometimes miss the goal. Keep it simple, my child. Love God. Love people. In all you do in life, that’s what is most important.
What can you do to love God and people well today?
Show patience to those I meet on the street, to those in my home, and to myself. Cultural differences, personality differences, and my own self expectations can drive me batty some days. If I try to see them how God sees them, perhaps I’ll have more patience with them.