Do as You Purpose: People Are Different

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Aug 21

I Purpose to:

• dress ~ DONE
• make the bed ~ DONE
• breakfast ~ DONE
• take meds ~ DONE
• feed the dogs ~ DONE
• make grocery list ~ DONE
• go to grocery ~ DONE
• wrote article ~ DONE

Progress:

The fair yesterday was great fun. We met DD1 and her new boyfriend, and spent time with DD2 and the boys. Afterwards we had dinner out with DD2 and family. As we were riding home from the restaurant, we were playing with our grandson in the backseat, and he was clearly tired. Finally, when he couldn’t keep his little peepers open anymore, he said, “Here, hold my sucker,” and stuck it to the side of DH’s face! Then he was OUT. Life just doesn’t get anymore precious. Then DH and I had another hour’s drive to get to our house. We came home absolutely exhausted, and DH and I slept for 11 hours! I woke up with my whole body hurting.

DH and I were out of coffee, so we had breakfast at the coffee shop, read the paper, made a grocery list and went grocery shopping. My body still hurts, and I am sooo tired.

I worked out 6 times this week, which is A LOT for me! I just feel like I need to heal for awhile now.

Thoughts:

People are different. I recently designed a book cover for a client, whom I consider a friend, a colleague, and a brother in Christ. The cover includes the shape of a state, with photos of immigrants filling, and occasionally spilling over, the outline. I made the photos into a collage, tilting and overlapping them. I was very pleased with my work, thinking how it showed fullness and burgeoning growth, the state virtually blooming with the diversity of its immigrant population.

When my client saw the cover, he loved it, AND he had one suggestion. “Can’t you straighten up all those pictures and keep them inside the borders? It looks messy this way.”

Is one way right, and the other wrong? Absolutely not! Whichever cover we use, some readers will like it, and others bill be “bothered” by it. They may not even know why, but something about it will just rub them the wrong way.

The point in all this is that people see things from different vantage points, and those visions shape everything we think and do: how we vote, what we teach our children, how we interact with each other, how we earn and spend money, how we structure our families.

As we move into the campaign season for the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, we will hear much about differences and incompatibilities. We will likely see people behaving dishonorably. We will see people spewing vitriol from every pore and spending many millions of dollars to denigrate each other. We may even see rational, caring, patriotic human beings, with honest differences of opinion, putting forth platforms and making cases for what they think is best.

Another thing we will see is theological wrangling, with leaders and candidates believing they were called by God to run for the Presidency. Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman and Barak Obama all claim to be Christians, yet their approaches and world views range dramatically. “How is it even possible that such different people can?” many will ask, while others will declare one or all to be a fraudulent villain.

My hope and prayer is that the leaders and candidates of these United States will look for common ground to build upon. American people are highly polarized right now, and many are hungry on a number of levels. We need leaders who can fight the good fight, but we also need leaders who can exemplify unity and work for the common good of all Americans.

My client and I also consider ourselves to be both Christians and patriots. I believe, and I believe my client would agree, that the pathway to heaven is through the loving grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the foundation of Christian relationships. We also respect each other’s talents and business acumen, and that is how we are able to work together successfully. Yet we are very different people, and it’s likely that our votes will cancel each other out. That’s the American way.

How will we decide which book cover to use? We will go with the one likely to sell the most books. Who will decide the election? American voters. Who will decide who is saved, unsaved, called or acting in accordance with God’s will? In His great wisdom, God did not appoint me or any human being to pass judgment on those questions. He has that part covered.

And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Philippians 2:12

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