| “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” |
| —2 Corinthians 5:14-15 |
Let me begin this blog post with a question: “Do you ever stop to think why you do what you do?” For example, all my life I have been known, and sometimes disliked, because I am generally a person who revels in details. I look for details and, when I find someone skipping over the details, I am, at the very least, annoyed. Sadly, sometimes I express that annoyance to the chagrin and disdain of the individual who has skipped over the details.
In my dotage, I have come to realize that in many cases I have no right whatsoever to be annoyed, or more importantly, to cause annoyance in others. That realization has not yet stopped the annoyance in either direction. But, it has helped me to try to modify what I blurt out when faced with skipped details.
Elsewhere on this blog, I have lamented the failure of the majority of McDonald’s employees to follow the corporate mandate—taught at McDonald’s University in Oakbrook, IL—on how to assemble an Egg McMuffin®. Let me very quickly explain—since some of you are downright sick of my complaining about this—the order from bottom to top is English muffin, Canadian bacon, egg, cheese, English muffin. However to my likely too-far-over-the-top annoyance, most McDonald’s employees make it as follows: English muffin, cheese, Canadian bacon, egg, English muffin.
“So what?” you might ask.
You see I loathe Canadian bacon. To speed up the ordering process, instead of ordering my Egg McMuffin® the way I like it—without the Canadian bacon—I prefer to order an ordinary sandwich and then remove the Canadian bacon before eating the sandwich. But, if the cook does not follow the corporate procedures, I cannot peel the Canadian bacon off the cheese without losing a significant portion of cheese. And, I love, love, love cheese.
“Wow, Dean!” you respond at this point. “Get a life!” And, you would be right. But, this incident pretty much sums up my life: details, details, details, details, and more details. These details comprise the bulk of every day of my life. Sometimes that is a valuable thing. Most times is makes people around me strongly dislike me.
So, I ask again: “Do you ever stop to think why you do what you do?” I submit to you that answering such a question is a detail of our lives that can prove most valuable.
In our relationships with others, we should do what we do because of Christ and His divine agape love—the God-breathed love He gives to us and the God-breathed love He expects us to pass on to others. Notice how the Apostle Paul describes this in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15:
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
Because Christ died for us, we should no longer live for ourselves. Rather, we should live—every moment of every day—for the One who died for us, namely Christ. It is His divine God-breathed love that should compel us to do what we do.
As we begin another day, let’s allow the Holy Spirit to cause our memory of what Christ has done for us to prompt us to obediently bend our selfish, human wills to His loving, caring, divine will. If we do that, we will be so much better ambassadors of His mercy, grace, and unfathomable love.
Based on a blog originally posted on Tuesday, August 1, 2017
