Hi Reader,
Welcome to Living Contentment Weekly. Here are your three contentment-related thoughts for today. Something for you to: read | do | pray
Today is the third in a series looking at how we can help others find contentment.
READ THIS
A week ago, when our dorm girls came back from break, we tried to make the dorm look extra inviting. We hung some banners, put encouraging notes on their desks, and the kids picked flowers from the yard for our table.
When they put the cut flowers in the glass jars, they neglected to put any water in the vases – and the life expectancy of the plants played out as one would imagine
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Water is simply hydrogen and oxygen – combined as two parts to one – et viola. I couldn’t help but think as I looked at those jars that there was plenty of both H and O inside. They’re just not combined properly. So while there is both present, they have no impact on giving the flowers what they need. If anything, the hydrogen and oxygen present are actually speeding up the flower’s demise.
Sometimes it’s the specific combination, the way things are put together, that makes the difference.
Perhaps someone knows that God is in control, but the story of your personal experience makes it click for them.
Maybe they already believe that the Holy Spirit is guiding them, but you point them to a passage that makes it come alive.
Possibly, they know Jesus is with them and for them, but your physical presence makes it feel real again.
Whatever the case, don’t dismiss the role you can play in other people’s lives without having to invent something new they have never heard.
Many times we need people to be there, to remind us, to rephrase something, to point us back to somewhere, or just to be the in-person reality of something we believe.
You can be that combination for someone else. You can help others find living contentment by helping bring together the spiritual hydrogen and oxygen that’s already present, but just not combined in a way that’s as helpful as possible.
DO THIS
Who do you know – right now – that’s going through something tough?
A rough time, a loss, a struggle?
Get in touch – even if you don’t think you have anything extraordinary to share.
You don’t need a solution for their problem – you might just need to be there to help them remember something they already know.
Maybe your presence – maybe your reaching out – is all they need right now.
PRAY THIS
Father, Son, Holy Spirit,
as you are a God in relationship,
you are a God of relationships.
Help us to see those around us who need someone.
Give us words to say.
When words fail, may we be your presense for them.
When presence is not possible, convict us to pray.
Amen
Talk to you next Thursday!
~George
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