What are you doing?

I have this friend who is a very cool dad. On a trip, one of his sons was screaming while another was agitating him into even louder wails. My friend turned around asking the agitator, "What are you doing to your brother to make him happy?"

I thought he was asking for a confession of wrong doing- "What are you doing to your brother now?!" Isn't that what we are supposed to do? Confess, repent, then do over-kinda like shampoo, rinse, repeat. But no, he was asking the child to think about his actions (or lack of) and the consequence of the deficiency more than pretend to feel bad about the commission of an act.

Do I do that? Nope. I can say I have not even considered what I am doing to make my brother, or sister or neighbor, happy. I don't even care to make them happy half the time, not unless I was having a good day and liked the person. Why not?!

What if I decided to make that part of my life? What if I intentionally set out to make someone happy each day, to bless them, to make their life a little easier? What if I stepped out of my self centered world, trusting Dad to take care of my needs, and focused on someone who needed a little more care than I do at that moment?

Shampoo, rinse, repeat doesn't sound like abundant life to me. Maybe not exactly what Jesus had in mind either...

Comments

Gigi said…
like this...need this...THANK YOU
June 11, 2009 at 10:33 AM
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