Several days ago I watched the saddest thing I’ve seen in a while. I was at church and directly in
front of me on the floor I saw a little beetle of some kind. He was flat on his back and feverishly
kicking his little beetle-feet in a useless attempt to right himself. I saw it, giggled, and walking away,
didn’t think anything else of it.
Until…
Several minutes later I passed by that way, only to see that the once flailing beetle now lay still.
Now I don’t mean he was tired and decided to take a break, get a smoothie and check Facebook…I
mean he was dead!
The overwhelming feeling of guilt suddenly hit me like a 300-pound muscly linebacker.
I thought, because of me this poor animal is no longer alive. What have I done?
I know, I know—it was only a beetle, but God, not wanting to waste this death, taught me a
profound spiritual principle: if you see someone who needs help, help them. Don’t make excuses.
Choose Your Clothes
In the past week I’ve been having some interesting conversations with the teenagers that I counsel. They’ve all been either excited or exasperated about having to buy new school clothes. Across all of North America there has been a collective cry from all teenagers about this process. To be honest with you, the vast majority of them don’t feel that it’s something fun to look forward to.
Now, honestly speaking, both of my kids are grown and moved out of my home, but I remember those days like they were yesterday. I remember the despair and the high drama when their mother and I began to systematically go through our kids’ closets and assess what needed to be gotten rid of and what we could keep for another school year.
God, through Paul, wrote the same thing about how we, as Christians should interact with others:
“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful” (Colossians 3:12-15, NLT).
Will You Choose to Use Your “Will” Power?
I like to think of it like this: everyday you and I must choose to make the one clear choice—the choice to choose God. If we do this, we are choosing to give God our “will.” Writer, Ellen White, in her insightful and relevant book, Steps to Christ, wrote about the power of making choices:
“Many are inquiring, ‘How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?’ You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you; but you need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in our nature, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to us; it is ours to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him” (page 46).
Flat on Their Back
In our lives we all will come into contact with lots of people who are dealing with some sort of “flat on their back” situation; a situation in which they—like that beetle–have absolutely no hope of fixing on their own. As you read this, you just thought of someone–or maybe even a lot of someone-s—in a situation just like this.
What have you done to help? What are you planning to do to help? You may think, it’s not a big deal, or I have no idea what I’m doing, or that’s somebody else’s job, or even the most common one: if I get involved—it’ll be…involved, but if you’re a Christian, you can’t make excuses.
The Apostle Paul writing to the Christians in Galatia (or Turkey, as we know it today), made this relevant request: “Brothers [and sisters], if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. . . Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:1, 2, NIV).
So today, reach out and right that helpless person. Jesus doesn’t want you to be a “secret-agent” Christian, but to boldly represent Him—not only to other Christians, but–to the world as well.
Additional Resources
