The Least Used Tools

Somewhere along your journey with God, you may have already realized that one of his preferred roles is that of teacher or trainer. To follow Jesus is to essentially apprentice him in how to live life. Just like any apprentice, you learn a lot of the main skills you will need fairly early on since they are the most common tasks you will do. But as you apprentice longer, you learn some of the more obscure tasks necessary in only special or unique situations. It's not enough to say that these situations don't happen much, therefore I won't learn the skills necessary to handle them. No, it is good to know what you would or should do in the event they do come up.

Jesus speaks of many such virtues, the ability to love and the ability to forgive. These we definitely have the opportunity to use everyday. There are other virtues that Jesus taught about that many of us do not regularly have the opportunity to use. Jesus talks about loving your enemies and praying for them. We all think such a thought is very noble but, in reality, we oftentimes don't have an immediate application to this. I may have people that I don't care for, but I wouldn't necessarily call them "enemies" of mine. Or when Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek" when responding to ridicule or abuse. I'm fortunate enough not to face this on a constant basis but what happens when I do? Will I prepared to respond to that in the manner that Jesus, my mentor, would have me?

The first time something like this happens, we are often unequipped for it. What did you do the first time you realize you really do have an "enemy", someone that actively works toward your misfortune. Or what did you do the first time someone ridiculed you in front of others? You may still be in the process of overcoming some of these things. It may still take some time for us to respond to situations like this in a Godly manner. But when you finally do begin to respond in such a way, when you begin to see victory in these situations, many of us feel a profound sense of closure about that virtue. We think, "Well God, I'm glad we figured that lesson out. Now lets leave that and move onto the next thing." And we pack that lesson away into our box of "life tools" expecting (or at least hoping) to never have any need for it again.

So it sometimes comes as a suprise when a very similar situation arises some time later. You know this situation, you've faced something like it before. But will you respond to it the way you did before; could you possibly even respond better? And so we dig that tool out of the bottom of our tool box to see what kind of condition it's in. Many times we find that we're a little rusty in our handling of it or that the tool has become a little dull. It doesn't take an incredible amount of time to get it back in working order but we feel inconvenienced for having to do so. It feels like we're retaking a class we already finished and we question the Teacher over the wisdom of this. Frustrated, we ask God, "Why am I having to deal with this again? I learned what I needed to learn the last time so what's the purpose of dealing with it again now?"

Perhaps I'm rambling, but this is I'm feeling right now. Praying for my enemies and responding to ridicule in a Godly way is not something I've never done but its not something I do often. I struggle to find purpose in this. It's like having to take a test again just to see if you'd get the same score. But, reluctantly, I am beginning to see the purpose in the Teacher's ways. These aren't skills that I can just acquire and then just discard. I not only have to keep them, but I have to keep them in good repair. While I'm working on one part of my character, I don't want to neglect another part and see it atrophy. These virtues may be some of my least used tools but they are no less important because of it. They are no less a part of who I am and can just as easily lead to my undoing if I let them fall into disrepair.

And so I find myself in a place I haven't been for a while. Praying for people who I'm sure aren't praying for me and turning the other cheek till I run out of cheeks for them to strike. The Teacher may not have caused this situation to arise but, rest assured, he's using it to teach me something that will eventually make me a Master Life Liver. That's my goal, not comfort, not security, just him - I wanna be like him.