Reluctant Retiree

I don’t know about you, but I often find that the things I have done have hurt someone, very often someone I care about dearly. My intent was pure and innocent, but somehow my follow through had unexpected consequences.

I hadn’t thoroughly thought through my actions. I Corinthians 10:23-24 says, “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” One of the measures of making good decisions, is to consider how our actions may impact others. It may seem that our next act is okay, but if we think it through, we will see how it can harm someone. We must seek to benefit others with our mindset and behaviors.

I have worn hearing aids for many years now. They have many benefits and a few drawbacks. I can definitely hear better, which helps me also be more socially aware. I can adjust the hearing aids to different environments to make them more effective. For instance, I can diminish ambient noise to focus on a single voice. Still, there are some occasions where the aids don’t work as well as I would like. In those situations, too much outside noise interferes with my reception.

Wouldn’t it be great to have hearing aids that are tuned into the voice of God? We could hear His voice clearly and tune out the world’s distractions. Our days would be filled with love and grace and we could hear and follow His every word.

Well, God says that He has done just that, giving us, not a hearing aid, but His Holy Spirit to speak within us. Jesus described this in John 10:3-4; “To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

If we are not hearing God’s voice, the problem is not in the clarity of His voice. The problem exists in the receiver, our hearts and minds. If we are tuned into the right station, alert to hear God’s voice, He will speak to us and we will hear Him and understand. In other words, if we are following Him, then our reception will be clear. If we are not following Him, we won’t get a clear signal to hear His voice. Practice listening for God’s voice by putting yourself in a position to hear.

Yesterday was one of those days when nothing seems to go smoothly. I drove into McDonald’s looking for a drink. The line of cars was so long that I pulled out to go somewhere else. Then I went to our favorite bagel shop to get my favorite bagel. The bagel was a disappointment on this day as it wasn’t well made and was less tasty. Then I headed to one of my favorite trails for a walk, only to find that it was blocked for fire department training.

Admittedly, these are all only minor irritations. One by one they didn’t affect me very much, but after a while the cumulative impact of these and other irritations disturbed me. I began to focus on the things going wrong rather than the good that could come from them. Rather than passing on my irritations to others, I had the opportunity to love and build them up. Rather than focusing on my petty inconvenience I could try to bless someone else with kindness.

Ephesians 4:31-32 says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” We can break the cycle of anger production by remembering how God has forgiven us. This will enable us by His Spirit to forgive others who might irritate us during our day. His power will develop tender hearts and kindness in us. When we keep our eyes on Jesus in this way, our focus is no longer on the inconveniences that irritate us and we can move forward in love.

I was people watching as I ate my lunch in the mall today. It seemed to me that most people were telling a story about themselves through their appearance. Now I wasn’t judging them but rather trying to understand what they were saying. The style of clothing that they wore spoke of how they viewed themselves, at least in that moment. Tattoos spoke volumes about things that were important to them, including names of people they held dear. Posture and countenance told me something about how this day was going for them. One teenager was speaking in a very animated way to his mom and grandmother, displaying a profound enthusiasm for the subject at hand.

I don’t believe that we can or should judge the motives of others. We can’t know or understand what is going on in their minds and hearts. We only observe the exterior.

However, God knows us intimately. He understands our weaknesses, He put on human flesh and lived as a man, though remaining fully God. He sympathizes with our frailty. So when we come to Him, even in our weaknesses, He will not cast us away from Him. Instead He will give us mercy and we will receive grace to help us. Hebrews 4:15-26 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

After listening to me for hours, a counselor once told me that I always take the hard road. She didn’t mean that as a compliment. I have a long history of choosing the more difficult way of working through things. I don’t do it on purpose, it’s just the choices I make.

One of my favorite Bible characters is Caleb. When Moses sent spies into the land that God had promised to give His people, Caleb and Joshua were the only two spies who believed that God would indeed defeat their foes and give them the land. The other ten spies let their fears overcome their faith and did not believe that God could give them victory. Forty years later, when Joshua was parceling out the land, Caleb asked for the most difficult land. It was a land of hills, fortified cities and giants. Caleb was 85 years old at the time, but he believed that God would overcome the obstacles, fight for him, and give him victory.

Joshua 14:11-12 records Caleb’s request: “I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me: my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the Lord said.”

When faced with a faith decision, how often do we take the way that is easier for us. In so doing, we are denying that God is able to accomplish the task and give us the victory. Many times choosing the difficult way is the right decision and a decision that will lead to victory by faith.