What I've been doing with my faith is this: instead of saying I'm going to believe in Jesus for my whole life, I've been trying to actually obey Jesus for thirty seconds at a time.
It's easy to agree with what Jesus said. What's hard is actually doing what Jesus did. For me, agreeing is cheap and obeying costly. Obeying is costly because it's uncomfortable. It makes me grow one decision and one discussion at a time. It makes me put away my pride. These are the kinds of decisions that aren't made once for a lifetime; they're made thirty seconds at a time.
I could not agree more. Obedience is hard. It takes faith. You have to really trust that God has the best in store for you. Obedience walks you straight into the fire. It can be overwhelming.
But the idea of obeying 30 seconds at a time is awesome!
We've all done this... I can hold this plank for 30 seconds. Maybe I can do it for 30 more seconds. Maybe another. OK, no more. I can run until the end of the song. Then I'll walk. No, run for this song too then walk.
Do you see the pattern building here? We've built up some history here. I CAN do things for 30 seconds. I just need to apply it in a new way - to loving people, to obey Jesus. Remember that He tells us in Mark to love the LORD your GOD and to love your neighbor as yourself? When I love GOD, I have to love His people.
Oh man, people are messy. I'm messy. One day I want this, they next I want that. But what I want every day is love. And the best way to get what I want is to give it away. So, I need to love the messy people GOD gives me to love. People who don't look like me or don't believe what I believe or who are just flat annoying.
It's like that old saying...how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. How do you love someone, especially a difficult person? 30 seconds at a time
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