Post from July 18, 2023

”👟 RSD 1176 ✅ Today’s Verse: “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose.” — Philippians 2:13

The Message groups verses 12 and 13 together: “What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give Him the most pleasure.”

Amplified Bible: “For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure.”

Are you ever just…out of energy? Physical, mental, emotional…spiritual—just out of energy? Work, family, maybe 2nd job, activities (for kids and maybe you too), church, after-hours work from job if you have that sort of job—all the while, you have some people in your life who are difficult (and no matter what you do, they continue to be difficult), there’s no milk (bread, juice, etc) in the house, you forgot about that thing you volunteered to do at your (job, church, kids’ school) that you’re going to do but are more tired now that you’ve remembered it, you feel invisible at your (job, social life, personal life) unless something needs to be done, maybe an old athletic injury flared up (not the “go to doctor” kind, the “it just hurts a little when you walk” kind), that constant feeling that you’re doing everything (yet nothing is getting done) is wearing on you, you haven’t read that book or watched that show that everyone’s talking about, there’s the added adult bonus of money being tight, and you are running in and out of the car in the evening trying to get to everything, and your car hits the “E”…and you know what? So have you. How are you supposed to do everything? You’re not a weenie, but, man, you’re tired. And, that feeling of the doing everything yet doing nothing just hits different. That’s a whole category of tired on its own. And, the mild athletic injury/gotta get milk and bread/need to stop for gas just seems to add insult to injury…poor choice of cliché, but there you go. During this constant “go” or “hustle culture” we have now means that most people are feeling this to some extent. Oh, “if you’re not winning, you’re losing,” “if you ain’t first, you’re last.” Why? Whatever happened to the middle? Why can’t winning be sitting there watching “Stranger Things” because everybody in America has seen that show except you? At least you’ve heard and inferred enough to know that Eleven gets nosebleeds, and the world is upside down…but their bikes still work. Maybe? Why can’t winning be stillness?

Today’s verse in the Message translation talks about energy…you know, the thing we feel like we really don’t have? The question we all propose to ourselves, “How am I going to get everything done? I’m so tired.” Here’s the part I think we’re missing—“how am I supposed to get everything done?”—easy: you’re not. The part of today’s verse that caught my attention: “That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working at what will give Him the most pleasure.” That’s right. “God’s energy.” See, the things in our aforementioned “doing the most” list aren’t bad things. It’s a lot of serving others, trying to do our best…things like that, and those are things that matter. But, the world wears on us: sometimes it seems that we get up just to get pushed back down again, and that takes a lot of our energy—even our soul seems tired. Even when things are going well, the crazy schedules many people keep take a lot of energy as well. So, doing everything all the time—we can’t; we’re human. But, God’s not. See, when we’re doing our best in life trying to love people the way God wants us to, we’re doing God’s work, not ours. When we concentrate on the things of God, and we’re being loving to others because that’s the perfect pathway that God laid out for all of us, God is actually working through us to love other people. When we love each other as Jesus loved us, we are sharing God’s love.

Today’s verse talks about the work we do not being about us but being about God. So, on our own…you know, if it’s just us doing all the things, that’s going to end up being too tall of an order (think like Starbucks being understaffed, and a group of teenage girls with healthy knowledge of the Secret Menu just came in). In those moments when we are just tired, and everything’s just a lot, that’s when we need to step back and remember that we’re not supposed to be doing life alone. “Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. That energy is God’s energy, an energy deep within you, God himself willing and working.” It seems here that the only energy we really need in our hard times is the little energy it takes to lean on God, to call out to Him for help. God will lift us with things like purpose and love and hope and joy, and we won’t have to carry all of these things alone.

In yesterday’s reflection, we touched on this hustle thing a little bit (and all of the comparative analysis hustle culture brings) in noticing that just because someone else’s footprints are deeper doesn’t mean their steps have covered more ground. Think about it: maybe your footprints aren’t as deep because you’re being lifted. I was talking with someone today about people with soft souls. The website inspiremore (dot com) gave this definition of soft soul, “A human being who always has a kind smile for everyone, even when they do not get a smile back in return. Someone whose heart breaks over the condition of this world. Someone who always has a gentle word for those who [need it].” Soft souls are easy to recognize cause, well, they’re just not as tense. You can be soft-hearted (tender-hearted) too…and I don’t just mean the Care Bear. Soft-hearted has a slightly different internet definition than soft soul but has a similar vibe, “very gentle and kind, showing love, kindness” (Britannica).
So, what do these colloquial references have to do with anything? The Amplified Bible translation of Matthew 5:5 tells us, “Blessed [inwardly peaceful, spiritually secure, worthy of respect] are the gentle [the kind-hearted, the sweet-spirited, the self-controlled], for they will inherit the Earth.” On RSD 1137, we talked about how “meek” isn’t weak: “meek” is gentle, humble, benevolent, and that’s how we should be. This whole soft soul/tender heart thing: it’s the vibe. It’s the goal. Those descriptions that describe the blessings gentle people have: “inwardly peaceful, spiritually secure, worthy of respect” are what stills our minds and calms our hearts; having this stillness helps us to keep perspective, and I think the secret to being a soft soul is faith and relying on God. He wants us to have peace and security in our spirit because we are His. It makes us feel like our best self, and it enables us to make better decisions, to love better, and to get less tired (or at least to recover quickly).

Don’t get me wrong: the gentle souls are going to get tired too. Tired and frustrated: they’re not immune. But, the difference is that they know how to deal with it in a way that’ll make them soar rather than just flapping their wings vigorously to attain the same altitude. And, we can all be gentle souls. ThoughtCatalog (dot com) has one of those (Yay, Millennial/Yay, GenZ!) articles on how you can tell if “Someone Has A Soft Heart And Gentle Soul.” Y’all, it’s a list of 33 things, but I’ll put a few here, and you’ll notice that these are things we can all do. It’s mostly about being loving consistently and in small ways, just making people feel seen. Here are some quotes about soft hearts.
“They’re not jealous when you succeed and they don’t treat you as a second-class citizen when you fail.”
“They remember a tiny detail about your life or something you like and bring it up in convo much later on.”
“They say good things about people behind their backs.”
“They can apologize to another, and accept forgiveness when someone offers that.”
“When someone noticed you were going to talk in a group but get cut off then later they say, ‘You were about to say something, right?’”
“They always return the cart to the cart corrals.”
“They don’t steal money they find.”
“They look engaged when you speak to them, and are patient if you’re struggling to explain something.”

We can put being loving into practice every day. We can do the Lord’s work every day. We’re going to get tired trying to do everything, and that’s when we take a step back and trust in God. And, sometimes God even leads us to the solution that sometimes being loving means being loving to ourselves and taking a rest. “‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light’” —Matthew 11:28-30. We don’t have to do all the things all the time. All we have to do is to do our best to keep loving and to lean on God. We have to realize that it isn’t our energy alone that makes things work—you know, doing God’s work and trying to follow God’s plan requires God; we have to allow God to work though us and, as from yesterday (from Micah 6:8) not “take [ourselves] too seriously—take God seriously.” We don’t use only our energy (I mean, we can try, but understaffed Starbucks/group of teenage girls/secret menu…probably not going to go well 😬): we ask God to use His energy (“For when I am weak, then I am strong” — 2 Corinthians 12:10). So, even if you’re riding on “E”, you’ll get refueled again. Just pull into the station, and take those minutes to sit…and really sit. Ask God for help. Exxon might be refueling your ride, but God and His perfect peace will be refueling you. And, when it seems that the world is upside down and you’re just trying to peddle your bike, just keep trusting God and doing your best—your bike still works.”