Archive for The Gathering Place "The Gathering Place" is a web community where people can gather and make new friends, share ideas, enjoy a few laughs and learn about many interesting things together. It is a safe place where friends can correspond with each other about what they love.
Livening up our worship services is great, but what about our lifeless lives? How can we make our spirits sing particularly outside the church worship service? How do we send messages to others that show we are happy, joyful, caring, and loving people?
Henry David Thoreau wrote:
I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor.
It is something to be able to paint a particular picture or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful...
But it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day...that is the highest of arts! We can show our Christian enthusiasm by:
• smiling
• caring
• listening
• kind words or deeds
• simply by loving each other
That last one is the new commandment of Jesus.
The Bible also says:
Ephesians 4: 25- 5:2
25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.
26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and do not make room for the devil.
28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy.
29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.
31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice,
32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
Ephesians 5
1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,
2 and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
A modern trend is to dump our problems on others, to carry a chip on our shoulder, to honk our car horns, to flip the bird, to blow the whistle. All of these behaviors add stress to both the life of the giver and of the receiver of these negative communications. It is a lose-lose proposition.
Before you vent it next time, ask yourself these questions. Am I thankful that I am safe in spite of the apparent danger? Will it matter a hundred years from now or even next week? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? And so on.
Anger, sorrow, and hatred are not worth our limited time. Life is too short, too precious, too important for these.
Of course we will always have our many problems in health, occupation, human relations, and our relationship with God. But if we ignore the petty troubles we may concentrate on positive solutions to the major problems.
By adding cheer to our own lives, we lighten both our own stresses as well as the stresses of those around us!
