Thoughts for another day

April 4, 2008

Today's verse: 1 Isaiah 1:17. Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. (KJV)
(Pls. read the above before you read further. Thanks)

This is what the Lord God wants us to do. I will dwell on only one aspect today and we will see what has been happening in the ‘do-good’ segment. As grown ups, when we see the crassness we wear within, we may think, ‘how did I become so crass, so brusque, so rude and crude?’ The answer lies in the past.

Think about the people you lived with and how they asked you to respond to situations. When small, I still remember clearly being told to give ‘tit for tat’. And the term, ‘serves you right’ is embedded in my mind. Another pretty favorite cliché is, ‘you must fight for your rights’, of course nothing wrong in it, but in God’s sight, not right either. In the ways of man, fighting for our rights is prudent and one must do it, is what people tell you. So too, if Mr Wright has wronged you, ‘then you must wrong him…see how can you keep quiet and bear the atrocities (atrocities? when it was just a little tiff he had with you and spoke ill about you with the neighbor) that he hands you, you must also insult him in full view of the public, else you will become a laughing stock… and so on the arguments of the world go.

However, in God’s domain these things are a strict no no. Our God is a forgiving God. He is always forgiving our misdeeds and He is intent on us forgiving too. In fact, God would go a step further saying that you need to do good to those who do you wrong. Pretty tough to do you might think but believe me when you have God by your side, it is possible. Because when He is with you, you tend to imbibe His nature and you will quickly realise that many times people may offend you without their desire being that. Another thing is God wants us to do good at all times. I have always maintained we do the good we can because by that we reflect the love of God.

My friend, it may not be possible to do good because of the layers we are padded with. But with a little effort and lowering of our ego, it is possible to atleast not do bad. That is the first step toward doing good. See there are many opportunities to do good in life. Pick them up and indulge. Someday at sunset point, your spirit will tell you that you need not worry about meeting your Savior on the other side, for you have taken His advise and your life has been a reflection of His nature… Good enough to walk the ramparts of Heaven!