Amanda Sylvester
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This was a breathtaking sight after being pretty anxious about my plane ride to Mexico. Especially knowing that I was about to land and within a few hours my feet would be in the sand (to my disappointment, the beach on my resort wasn’t that nice, but we could walk just up the beach to a gorgeous lagoon.) Anyways, I got a little sidetracked there, sorry.
On our flight, I was thinking about how easy it is to only see life from our own point of view and get caught up in our own “little” lives, if i might call them that, and forget about the world around us. I was reminded last week that there’s an entire world out there beyond this little world I’m living in. This doesn’t apply to everyone, but a lot of us –including myself– tend to isolate ourselves from the world around us so that we don’t have to see the pain and suffering of others.
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” Romans 12:2 NIV (Verse of the Week)
Why do we do that?
We don’t know how to approach people we don’t know anymore (especially my generation). But that’s okay. Messily approaching someone is better than not approaching them at all. Just go in with an attitude of compassion and genuine concern for them and we might create real relationships.
We’re scared to get hurt ourselves. We think that if we get too connected and care too much about other people’s feelings we will hurt with them and I think we’re afraid of that.
We can’t be afraid. We have to remember that there’s so much more than our normal circle, whether large or small We have to be around people that we aren’t always with in order to fulfill the great commission:
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 NIV