Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
Luke 6:38
When I lived out in the country, I had to fight discouragement over driving to town, trying to combine all my errands into one trip, and especially the movement of grocery items from shelf to cart (or buggy as we say here in the South), from cart to conveyer belt, into bags, bags back to cart, into van, out of van, into kitchen, and finally onto the pantry shelves.
We waste so much time in the modern world doing almost unnatural things to meet our most natural need for food. I know when Grandma canned her garden-fresh produce that also required a lot of steps and time, but the old folks talk about how satisfying that process was.
And then one glorious day, they invented The Pick Up (cue the heavens opening and the angels singing)! It’s also a very modern thing, but it saves me so many of the steps listed above. Even living in town now, I do pick-ups as often as possible.
The other day, for (I think) the first time, I got home and was missing an item.
You know, it was very unjust for me to pay for that item and then not receive it. I had visitors coming two hours later so I didn’t have time to go back and claim what was rightfully mine. (Can you say “first world problems”?)
Seriously, isn’t life full of such little injustices? I imagine it all evens out. Probably somewhere along the line I have accidentally paid less than what was fair or even required. Or I cut in line or talked out loud in the movie theater or something. We usually let such things go without bringing a lawsuit or even marching back to the store to insist on getting our missing item (plus a future coupon to cover the damages of inconvenience and mental anguish).
Then again, sometimes we do expend considerable energy trying to rectify such matters, or at least complaining about them.
It’s no wonder then, when we consider more serious grievances— maybe personal wounds from a long time ago, or large scale injustices we hear about in the news— we often don’t know how to deal with those either. I suppose it makes sense: the bigger injustices matter more. Still, I wonder if we could flip that somewhat and say that until we DO learn to let the little things go, we have no hope of learning to move on from the greater grievances of this life.
Not long ago I saw a young student pouting because she had been kept in for part of recess. In her mind it was unfair, and she sat there silently fuming about it. Nothing unusual about that, right? Every kid who has ever lived, including you and me, has pouted over perceived injustice. This is exactly why we tell them, “Life isn’t fair.” Because everyone makes mistakes, including teachers and pick-up grocery shoppers. So I’m to “be merciful just as [my] Father also is merciful.” If I forgive, I can be forgiven. If I give, it will be given to me, “good measure… running over.” With the same measure that I use, it will be measured back to me (Luke 6:36-38).
But more than that, we need kids to learn to deal with the small injustices so that they can have the capacity to learn to accept greater ones. Not to accept them as in making doormats of themselves. But to accept them, as in not pouting over it or fuming over it for fifty years, but moving on with life and just accepting the reality that we all have grievances. My grievance against life doesn’t make me special. And pouting or fuming is a poor choice of response.
As many conveniences as this modern life affords, it also still affords the same old things— struggle, work, limited time, inconvenience, disappointment, and conflict. Perhaps by practicing a gracious response in the little things, we can have hope, by God’s grace, to bear the bigger things with a little more Christian charity as well.
Love bears all things.. endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7
Dear God, life is such a constant mix of blessings and burdens. I pray that You will give me the strength to bear all things with charity. Forgive me for complaining about the imperfections of life, whether great or small. Help me to be more thoughtful of the example I’m setting for others, and more grateful for all the good things You do for me day by day. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
by Christie Cole Atkins
Walk Worthy 