Concerning Hustle and/or Bustle

Donald Miller made an interesting observation of humankind as a civilization, race, or what have you, in his newest book “Searching For God Knows What”.He puts it in the perspective of an alien, visiting our planet, for the first time. The alien concludes, after some time was spent analyzing our race by what kinds of things are important to us, and what makes us tick, that we entirely get too distracted by comparing ourselves to each other. The whole Joneses thing.

It’s a legit paradigm, I think. How many of our day-to-day decisions are made based on what others expect of us?

My thought is simple : Our God-given destiny will only be fulfilled when we ignore what others think is the ‘right’ thing for us to do, path to take, etc. We are here on this earth to grasp what God has planned for us. Completely. Only then is our potential reached. But once success inevitably comes after making this decision to embrace His path for us, the glory must be His.

I suppose this is why so many ministers, teachers of the Bible, pastors, to name a few, end up with lives left askew. Lives that metamorphosed into chaos. Maybe the success went to their head? Got complacent and comfortable? Felt privileged and accomplished enough to push the boundaries of what they could get away with? I think so.

 

The point is that I, just like everybody else, has been kept awake at night by the question “What should I do next”? Like something inside us has a tendency to base our decisions on what the ‘status quo’ is. Screw the status quo. Set your own standard. Raise the bar.

 

Soon, you will have a crowd following you. You’ve raised the expectation, and a mob will always gather where there’s a change in a system. Whether that be social, political, or economical, humankind, like moths to a flame, will gather around whatever or whoever challenges what the crowd is doing. The key here, as the par-setter, is to not let the newly acquired attention of the crowd interfere with your humility and selflessness.

 

So, in conclusion, we should not be an easily distracted moth, but more like ants. Like the scripture in Psalms. Ants do what they are meant to do, without any attention made to what the other ants are doing. There is a camaraderie among us that is healthy. Actually it’s essential. But our comparison must not be based on who of us has done or accomplished the most, but who is pursuing Christ and fulfilling our potential, being empowered by Him.