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What Keeps Us From Serving Others? (3)
'But they paid no attention...' Matthew 22:5 NIV
Indifference is the third thing that keeps us from serving others. A well–known comedian quipped, ‘Scientists announced today that they’d found a cure for apathy. However, they claim no one has shown the slightest bit of interest in it.’ When it comes to communicating, that could be said of many of us; we’re indifferent to how we come across. We may not necessarily feel superior to others, but we don’t go out of our way to get to know them either. Why? Because it’s hard work!
In reality, indifference is another form of selfishness that keeps us from connecting with people. Novelist George Eliot put it like this: ‘Try to care about something in this vast world besides the gratification of small selfish desires. Try to care for what is best in thought and action—something that is good apart from the accidents of your own lot.
Look on other lives... See what their troubles are, and how they are borne.’ People truly appreciate it when you make the effort, no matter how small, to try to see things from their point of view. Paul writes, ‘Be kindly, affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another.’ (Romans 12:10 NKJV)
Everybody you meet is wrestling with a fear or fighting a battle and, if you’re caring and sensitive, God will give you a word to lift them. Isaiah said, ‘The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary…’ (Isaiah 50:4 NKJV) What a gift—to be able to lift someone who is struggling.
written by Bob Gass
'But they paid no attention...' Matthew 22:5 NIV
Indifference is the third thing that keeps us from serving others. A well–known comedian quipped, ‘Scientists announced today that they’d found a cure for apathy. However, they claim no one has shown the slightest bit of interest in it.’ When it comes to communicating, that could be said of many of us; we’re indifferent to how we come across. We may not necessarily feel superior to others, but we don’t go out of our way to get to know them either. Why? Because it’s hard work!
In reality, indifference is another form of selfishness that keeps us from connecting with people. Novelist George Eliot put it like this: ‘Try to care about something in this vast world besides the gratification of small selfish desires. Try to care for what is best in thought and action—something that is good apart from the accidents of your own lot.
Look on other lives... See what their troubles are, and how they are borne.’ People truly appreciate it when you make the effort, no matter how small, to try to see things from their point of view. Paul writes, ‘Be kindly, affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another.’ (Romans 12:10 NKJV)
Everybody you meet is wrestling with a fear or fighting a battle and, if you’re caring and sensitive, God will give you a word to lift them. Isaiah said, ‘The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary…’ (Isaiah 50:4 NKJV) What a gift—to be able to lift someone who is struggling.
written by Bob Gass
