There’s 89 days to go before 2026 is over. Jingle bells, jingle bells………and right there that song is stuck in your head! The Christmas nuts are already dusting off their Christmas trees. You know who you are. Mary-Ann.
I’m slightly annoyed with myself that my last piece was penned around Father’s Day – in June!
I have been writing – just not my venting, raving, hoping I’m making a difference, has this happened to you, doing life together Kalisi blog. For anyone that’s new here, Kalisi is a Telegu word. It means ‘together’, and it also ties in with one of my favourite scriptures in the Bible.
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
Before I started writing this, I had a few weeks that led me to sit down yesterday and say, “I’m done with people.” This verse above was the furthest thing from my mind. I have been threatening to write this piece for months now. Every time something happened, I would announce, “I’m going to write about this!!” I would promptly get busy and forget until the next episode and the same threat was made again.
Until we have arrived at this moment.
Have you ever felt that way?
Where, if by some miracle you were transported to a lonely cabin in the woods, (bears, insects and serial killers aside), you would be completely happy drinking coffee out of a tin cup, eating beans from a can and re-reading Pilgrim’s Progress a hundred times, if you didn’t have to deal with people.
Alllll by myselllllffffff…….skip the lyrics ‘I don’t wanna be’ because me? I WANT TO BE ALL BY MYSELF!
What is going on in this world? I’m not talking about crime and natural disasters, although we have seen enough of that in the news to keep us grieving for a long time. I’m talking about etiquette, manners, consideration, respect and just being good to other people.
I have started asking myself if I have too high expectations of people? I ask myself if I’m being unreasonable. I question my own work ethic when others are working in a completely different manner than I am.
Except it’s not me. It’s you.
Well, I don’t mean you if you’re not guilty, but I do mean you, if you are.
Apart from the verse above keeping me on track to be helpful and serve others, I have another verse that is scribbled in my work notebook and saved on the screensavers both personal and business.
Colossians 3: 23-24
Whatever you do, work heartily for the Lord, and not for men, knowing that you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.
Now, by no means am I placing myself on a pedestal and saying that I don’t fall short of this standard many times.
But more often than not, when this verse is at the forefront of my mind, I serve well because my ultimate goal is to serve the Lord in what I am doing.
I have written about this in my new devotional called Still Blooming, launching soon…..convenient little plug there to the book!
I’m going to leave a snippet here, as opposed to re-writing what my thoughts are on this subject.
Many people turn away from following Christ because they find the Bible too prescriptive. Too dictatorial. Too rigid.
Whatever you do …………?
Shopping? Driving? Cleaning? Cooking? Do those activities also fall into the category of whatever you do?
If I apply this verse to every part of my life, everything becomes important! There is not a single area of my life that I can treat frivolously or take lightly. Every action invites me to have an internal conversation about how I will approach the task before me.
It becomes a matter of the heart, not only a matter of action.
When I looked up the meaning of heartily, and let’s be honest, it is a rather old-fashioned word, I found several surprising alternatives. To do something heartily means to do it sincerely, enthusiastically, energetically, thoroughly or completely.
Read the verse again using those words:
Whatever you do, work sincerely, enthusiastically, energetically, thoroughly or completely, as for the Lord and not for men.
To answer my own wandering thoughts: yes, shopping, driving, and cleaning should all be done for the Lord. Whatever I do.
Imagine if everyone applied this verse to every task they did. Including me.
Would you keep the Lord waiting for 5 days before you responded to an email? Would you give the Lord a push to the back of the que? Would you avoid a call? Would you lie when you want to cancel plans? Would you cut that car off, would you blue-tick someone, would you block someone with no conversation before that action, would you do anything where you didn’t give your absolute best…….would you?
If I go back and dissect the alternate words for heartily, then I’m sad to say, many of us are guilty of falling short.
Sincerely – your heart must be involved
Enthusiastically – you find pleasure or joy in it
Energetically – with passion, with some va va voom!
Thoroughly – excellently if you will, you did not leave anything out
Completely – no-one needs to add or fix anything once you are done
Now, I know as a society, we have had a rough deal since 2020. The world came to a standstill, and everyone was stuck with themselves. Outside of the walls of our home, no-one else mattered. We watched from a distance while people died, people grieved, people became ill and while the streets emptied out, we were filled with anxiety, uncertainty and fear. But it got better. Some things could not be undone. For the most part, the world started being normal again. Except many people didn’t go back to who they were before.
It’s not normal to be so inward facing while people around us need us to do better. What would our world look like of some the greatest people remained focused on themselves? Throughout history, we have recorded accounts of great men and women who have paved the way in showing what self-less behavior could achieve.
Mahatma Ghandi hmmmmmmm let’s just say India and South Africa were never the same again.
Nelson Mandela, if you live anywhere in the world and don’t know what he did……sigh there is no hope for you.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Isaac Newton one of the forefathers of science and technology, Harriet Tubman who could have taken her freedom and run but risked her lives so others could enjoy that same freedom. Marie Curie, Abraham Lincoln, da Vinci, Van Gogh, Columbus, Mozart, Bach and just because I think he was amazing, Johannes Gutenberg, who democratized literacy when he created a mechanized printing press, making it possible to manufacture books on a large scale for relatively little cost. Books!
I want to say that after going back to these verses from the Bible and writing this that I’m ready for people again. I’m not. I’m disappointed and disillusioned. I’m angry. I’m tired. I also ask myself what kind of examples we are setting for the next generation when the world is already so cruel and difficult. What hope do they have if they are parented or guided by selfish people who do nothing as unto the Lord? I’m also willing to try harder. To not allow bad examples to colour the mandate we have all been given. To love people.
I have softened a bit, just writing these verses out and reminding myself who I am called to be.
I have a plan to deliberately do things for other people in the week ahead. Little things to serve them and hope that they in turn do the same to someone in their lives.
I’m willing to come back from that cabin in the woods. Are you?