Making Excuses for Mediocrity
Matthew 5:38-42 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek too. If anyone wants to sue you in court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. If a soldier forces you to walk with him one mile, go with him two. Give to anyone who asks you for something. Don’t refuse to give to anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
When you encounter a bad person in your life … come on, that “idiot” who doesn’t get it, who’ll never get it, how do you react? Do you come up higher in your faith, or do they cause you to stoop lower?
Whether we realise it or not, we’ve been programmed for comfort. We’ve been conditioned by an economic system – sold to us by spin merchants and advertisers – to work hard, to earn money, to spend it on ourselves, on every whim and fancy, allegedly to make our lives better.
And that conditioning causes us to react badly in the face of adversity. After all, we’re “entitled” to feel good. We “deserve” the best. But life’s not like that. We encounter grumpy people, bad people, unjust people and with our sense of entitlement firmly intact, we use their bad behaviour as our excuse for mediocrity.
I’ll give him what for! How dare he treat me that way!?
Like I said, our sense of entitlement is our excuse for mediocrity. But what if … just humour me here … what if we took those bad people in our lives as an opportunity to come up higher?
Matthew 5:38-42 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, don’t fight back against someone who wants to do harm to you. If they hit you on the right cheek, let them hit the other cheek too. If anyone wants to sue you in court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. If a soldier forces you to walk with him one mile, go with him two. Give to anyone who asks you for something. Don’t refuse to give to anyone who wants to borrow from you.”
So what will it be? Mediocrity, or the extra mile?
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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