The great thing about being God's child is that you never stop learning(unless you arrogantly chose to), and sometimes even to re-learn something which you thought you already know. As creatures of comfort, we generally dislike being inconvenienced and we are always capable of coming up with seemingly valid excuses.
My friend had invited me for an event on a day where I had some time but because I prefer to go somewhere else, I politely decline with a vague excuse such as "I might not be free". Internally, I knew that I had time but would rather go somewhere else and hence, I felt that the excuse was justifiable. Sounds valid doesn't it? Of course it does and no one will see any problem with that - Except that this person who invited me is someone I am trying to reach out to.
Aha. That makes a world of difference, doesn't it? As I reflected on my instant decision, I realised how self-serving I was. The truth is that I would rather enjoy myself than to inconvenience myself to go for an event that I was not particularly interested in so that I could reach out to the person. I had intentions to invite this person for a Christmas service and wanted him to come. But what gives me the right to invite the person(and expect him to come) at all when I don't even want to accept his invitation in the first place? That was indeed very selfish. It's as if I'm telling the person, "Hey, come for for this event. Nevermind if you have never step into a church before and may feel awkward. Never mind the inconvenience of finding the place and having to use up your precious holiday time for this event. Nevermind if I didn't accept your invitation. This is more important. It will change your life. You got to come!" Sounds hypocritical, doesn't it?
It's a great lesson to be learn and I thank God for His exposure of my self-service. I've since accepted my friend's invitation and looking forward to building a stronger friendship which will enabled me to speak into his life as God directs me. Every moment is an opportunity. If you expect your friends to inconvenience themselves to come for your church's service and to listen to some "speech", then you better be ready to inconvenience yourself and respond to your friend first.
After all, Jesus did more than just inconvenience Himself to save us. Our inconvenience is nothing really. So don't let your own comfort deprive someone of hearing Christ. Make the right inconvenient choice today.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
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