It’s on my heart lately to work on my love walk. To be Jesus in the skin in this world. I allow my pride and impatience to get in the way many times. I’m always in a hurry, I don’t need to rush anywhere, I just want to be efficient. I have that type of personality. I’m a person who can be thinking about one thing, talking on the phone about another, and writing something completely different. I am efficient. A multi-tasker. This leads to impatience and I know that impatience is a manifestation of pride.
Pride shows itself in my life these ways: (1) impatience (2) being critical or judgmental, someone is not doing something as well as I think they should, or as well as I think I could; (3) being late frequently, for me, being late can reveal pride. It communicates that my schedule is more important than someone else’s. (4) arrogance, being insensitive to other people.
I’m sure pride shows up in many other ways, conceit, bragging, haughtiness, etc. But pride in my life is mostly this list of four. I don’t mean to be cold or insensitive; I just appear that way because of my impatience and the drive in me to be perfect and efficient.
I’m reminded of Mark 8:22-25 “And they came to Bethsaida. And (people) brought to Him a blind man and begged Him to touch him. And He caught the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village; and when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him, He asked him, do you see anything? And he looked up and said, I see people, but (they look) like trees, walking. Then He put His hands on his eyes again; and the man looked intently (that is, fixed his eyes on definite objects), and he was restored and saw everything distinctly (even what was at a distance).”
I’ve been seeing people that look like trees lately, I find myself looking right past them or through them. The blind man wasn’t seeing people clearly. Neither am I. I’m not blind to their presence—I’m simply not seeing them as Jesus saw them. I am not focused on definite objects; I am focused on what task I am doing at the time. I see many people daily in my job, and I’m not sensitive to them as people. I’m not being Jesus to the people in front of me, and I’m not walking in love; I am just doing my task.
God isn’t asking me to do more, He’s asking me to love more. Efficiency gets more done but love changes people. My prayer is that He slows my heart enough to truly see the people He places in front of me.
Lord reduce me to love,
The love that’s from above.
Let there be nothing left inside of me,
Except Your love, for others to see.
I pray Your love shines so bright,
That others are attracted to the light.
That we may all have love for each other,
And not hide continually under cover.
Reduce, refine, and work within,
Until You conquer every sin.
A church without blemish or spot
Is what Your blood has bought.
You paid by dying on the tree,
Long ago at Calvary.
For believers, You promise to return,
For that day we all yearn.
Until then, Reduce Me to Love...
Leave a Reply