Doing unto others
"...We have had the Golden Rule since Confucius' time. Our problem has never been not knowing what we should do. Our problem, rather has been that we lack power to do what we know we should do." Paul Little Know Why You Believe
That famous "golden rule" that your mother or teacher or someone else espoused on you, "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you." A truer teaching has never been taught, but people who actually do it are few and far between. (How many more cliches can one woman write?)
Let's face it, when we think about what we do with our lives a lot of our time and energy is expelled in entirely selfish and unproductive manners. I don't know how many lifetimes I've lived in front of the television or lost in a good book. I want other people to take time out of their TV watching and book reading and spend quality time with me. So, if I was really living up to "doing to others what I would want for me," I would put those things aside that hinder me from spending time with or praying for people.
Little is right, though. We know we should be taking care of each other, and in most cases I believe we do want to do that. But we don't trust the one who can help us accomplish that task. I can't even imagine how much power we don't tap into because we don't believe it helps, or gasp, even exists. God is so much bigger than our minds. I've seen him heal my mother of cancer, twice, and bring a friend out of a deep depression, for good, not to mention all the stories we read about in the Bible. That's a lot of power. And he is willing and ready to use it, if we would just chose to partner with him.
He could do it by himself. To face the cold hard facts, he doesn't need us to accomplish his work on earth. He chooses to allow us to be a participant in the glorious story. How great is this God, who did not create robots, but created humans he loved and gave free will to. We have a lot of choices. The first is to believe in him and his complete power. The power that can transcend to each of us "doing to others as we would want done to us." Let's start to ask for big things to happen in the lives of those around us, and maybe if we're lucky God will allow us to do some of the leg work.
That famous "golden rule" that your mother or teacher or someone else espoused on you, "do unto others as you would want them to do unto you." A truer teaching has never been taught, but people who actually do it are few and far between. (How many more cliches can one woman write?)
Let's face it, when we think about what we do with our lives a lot of our time and energy is expelled in entirely selfish and unproductive manners. I don't know how many lifetimes I've lived in front of the television or lost in a good book. I want other people to take time out of their TV watching and book reading and spend quality time with me. So, if I was really living up to "doing to others what I would want for me," I would put those things aside that hinder me from spending time with or praying for people.
Little is right, though. We know we should be taking care of each other, and in most cases I believe we do want to do that. But we don't trust the one who can help us accomplish that task. I can't even imagine how much power we don't tap into because we don't believe it helps, or gasp, even exists. God is so much bigger than our minds. I've seen him heal my mother of cancer, twice, and bring a friend out of a deep depression, for good, not to mention all the stories we read about in the Bible. That's a lot of power. And he is willing and ready to use it, if we would just chose to partner with him.
He could do it by himself. To face the cold hard facts, he doesn't need us to accomplish his work on earth. He chooses to allow us to be a participant in the glorious story. How great is this God, who did not create robots, but created humans he loved and gave free will to. We have a lot of choices. The first is to believe in him and his complete power. The power that can transcend to each of us "doing to others as we would want done to us." Let's start to ask for big things to happen in the lives of those around us, and maybe if we're lucky God will allow us to do some of the leg work.
posted by Ari | 4:17 PM
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