We often are more focused on what we are doing rather than
who we are doing it for. It seems we are
always thinking of what we are doing and often we take it one step further and
focus on what others are doing. When we
meet someone new we often ask them, what do you do? What are you doing with your time? Sometimes we end up comparing their doing with
our own doing.
There are all kinds of doing and of course we were talking
this morning about doing for God, but the fact is we displace the doing for God
to what are we doing, we are almost selfish in the thoughts about what we do,
bragging about doing the right thing, even doing the wrong thing, putting the
focus on being proud in serving Him, being obedient to Him…or not. In our obedience, or in our disobedience, besides
affecting our relationship with God we are also affecting one another.
Yes, really it does matter what we are doing, what we do
affects others, what we do hurts others, but hopefully it blesses others. What
we do matters. A friend of mine, just
the other day said to me, “I don’t have to do anything, things will happen and
play out just as they should.” But the
truth is we do have to do something, and we are all influenced by what the
other does, sometimes in just small seemingly uneventful ways but sometimes in
large, big picture, hurtful ways. Sometimes, and hopefully, more often these influences happen in
beautiful, life changing, kind ways. Truly, small or large, what we do matters, there are those who will be affected…affected
by you, how are you doing?
I read a quote the other day; it comes from a book that has
recently been made into a movie, a book called 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell…
“Our lives are not our own.
We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every
kindness we birth our future.”
I have been affected by these words, how we are bound to one
another, bound by what we do, crimes or kindnesses have effects that can last
into the next generation and the next,
not only those that belong to you but also to the generations that belong to
those you are doing to.
I want to do better…but
doing better is hard work.
Paul says it well,
“For I have the desire to do what is
good, but I cannot carry it out. For
what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I
keep doing.”
Romans 7:19
How you are doing matters…
How are you doing?
