Sometimes daily living is a great challenge.
We feel like the man sent to drain the swamp who is more than knee deep in alligators. That鈥檚 when we need to be creative and seek the right help.
The story is told of a job interview with 200 persons applying for one important position. They were all given the following situation to resolve: you are driving in your car and you come across three people at a bus stop. One is the life partner of your dreams, the second is an old friend who once saved your life and the third is an old lady in a medical emergency.
What do you do? The successful applicant resolved it this way: 鈥淚 would give my car to my old friend to take the old lady to the hospital and I would join the girl of my dreams waiting for the bus.鈥�
What can we learn out of this? Thinking outside the box is something we can do with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Bishop Bryan Bayda poses this question to young couples preparing for marriage. 鈥淲here would you draw the line with your fianc茅? What action of theirs would be too much and would break your relationship?鈥�
After they recorded and shared their answers with each other, Bayda posed this question: where did Jesus draw the line?
聽After Christ rose from the dead, He met His disciples who had betrayed Him. They had fled instead of helping Him. They couldn鈥檛 even stay awake to pray in Gethsemane.
And Jesus鈥� greeting to them was, 鈥淧eace be with you鈥� (John 20:19). And that is His greeting to us. Imagine Jesus meeting you today. You recall your failings, betrayals and sins of the past week. How did you treat your spouse or family? How abrupt were you with others? How did you neglect your prayer life or Sunday worship?
And Jesus says, 鈥淧eace be with you.鈥� And He goes beyond sharing His peace with you. He says, 鈥淎s the Father has sent me, so I send you鈥� (John 20:21). If this is confusing to us, Jesus adds, 鈥淩eceive the Holy Spirit.鈥�
We are ambassadors for Christ. We pray and act in his name. Over time, with the help of Jesus and his Spirit, there is not much that we cannot do.
If our hearts are open to receive the gifts of the Spirit, we will be equipped to go on a mission to evangelize, to share his love with our families and the world. We will drain the swamp and think outside the box.
After meeting with us, can people say, 鈥淚 have seen the Lord?鈥�
