Skip to main content

A Morning View Near the Patio

"Never criticize a man until you've walked a mile in his moccasins." -American Indian Proverb

The longer I hear the stories of those whom I sit with and talk to in ministry, the more I realize this proverb to be true. This is true for all of humanity. We see the outside surface issues of peoples lives for 2-3 hours during church services and events. Sometimes they may share more deeply their passion in corporate worship or small groups. But we really do not know. We think we know people, their situations and their hearts. We give them great answers on how to FIX everything.

Have you ever had someone tell you, "If you would just do this, this and this it will be fine?" Better yet, how about the great advice, "Just give it to the Lord and it will be fine."

Now do not get me wrong, I believe we need to surrender to God. We need to allow the Spirit of God to guide us. We need to truly give it to the Lord. But how? Advice without Jesus in skin with it may just become words. "I will pray for you" can become a great catch phrase without action. I always wondered when I prayed why it wouldn't go away and have everything just be hunky dory? It takes time and support on our journey.

It is vital and important for each of us to find a safe place and person or persons to walk in our moccasins with us. It is okay to talk to trained professionals and it is important to have a go to person. My friends, we need each other. Living in the beginning quote becomes vital to truly help each other develop our relationship with God and each other. The goal is not to point out what is wrong with each other, but to nurture one another, support and understand each other. We need each other!

What size moccasin do you wear? What size moccasin does your friend wear?

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."  - Proverbs 27:17 NLT 

Peace,
PB

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Morning View By the Wood Stove

If you proclaim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then I must ask you a question. Are you seeking the deepest possible intimate relationship with God that you can ever experience on this earth? Because I know what I am about to say to be absolutely true. If you are not and if you are pursuing anything other than God you will not ever be satisfied and ultimately any other relationship will fail. It does not matter how deeply connected with another person you are without God it will fail. Failure may not mean completely walk away, failure can mean that a relationship will not be what it is intended to be and you settle for it because at least it is there, it's the best I can do, it could be worse and for many other reasons.  We are created to be in relationship with one another. We have many relationships and many depths within those relationships. We have social relationships. We have relationship with many forms of addiction and substitution. We have friends and we have FRIENDS...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

I believe Christians are called to live a different life in the world than those who are not Christian. I believe that no matter the circumstance of the world, the government and all the just and injustice we are called to be different. Jesus handled the Easter journey much differently than I believe the modern Christian in the USA would have handled it. The Apostle Paul lived as best he humanly could to model the path and life of Jesus Christ during the difficult times of persecution and injustice of his journey. A lot of thoughts are swirling in my head during our difficult time we are currently experiencing and all of those thoughts come back to my life as a Christian, believer and follower of Jesus Christ, and do my thoughts, actions and words model Jesus on the Easter journey to the cross? In Matthew 16:24-26 Jesus told his disciples to "take up their cross and follow me!" I am believing that Jesus is telling us to live like, act like, be like and love like Jesus did....
Post a Comment
Read more

A Morning View Near the Patio

Sabbath - to rest from labor, set aside as holy. Because we have less to do in our current situation, perhaps as Christians we can redefine what Sabbath looks like for us. I wonder how many of us traditionally go to church in our weekend routine, have lunch then get right back at it? After all, we have so much to do and so little time. It has been nice to sit and be. On the nicer days, when the weather cooperates, it has been so nice to sit on the patio and just be. I have sat and contemplated there more this year than I did all last summer. Perhaps a new normal of Sabbath can take place in our lives. As a child I remember going to church on Sunday morning and on the way home being dropped off at Grandma and Granddad's place. We would have lunch and quite often go for a ride. Usually the ride would end somewhere with ice cream! The routes must have been develops around the ice cream establishments in Northeast Ohio! We did very little, but for me as a kid we did a lot. I remember...
Post a Comment
Read more