Rejoice with those that rejoice; mourn with those that mourn.My initial response was, of course I was living this way, never actually contemplating how I spent my days. I did not really take the time to ask myself if I was really engaged in others lives where they were at, regardless of whether or not it was joyful or sorrowfully.
Recently two of my friends lost someone close to them, two other families that I know lost their homes in the fires, and another is experiencing tremendous heart ache over a lost relationship. On the other hand there are so many that have things to rejoice about. A new baby being born, a marriage proposal and wedding day to plan, and God supernaturally protecting their property from the fires. Over the past few weeks the Holy Spirit has began to speak softly to me about how selfish I had originally interpreted this passage. If I had been more honest with myself about this passage, I would have seen back then what I see now... how twisted my heart in its natural form truly is and how easy it is to wake up thinking only of myself.
I expect everyone else to rejoice with me and mourn with me in my time, rarely do I want to rejoice and mourn with others when it's not convenient for me. In fact, when the fires broke out late last week my heart was torn between rejoicing and mourning for how it was impacting my life. I live far out east and yet many of my friends live directly in the line of fire, including my church. At first my eyes were glued to the TV, mainly because I wanted to know how the evacuations were going to effect me. I wanted to help in any way possible not because I wanted to engage with others but because I wanted life to get back to "normal". The chaos and hopelessness created within me this awkward feeling of displacement and all I could think of was how to get things to calm back down so we could all just go back to peace and quiet.
Now you may think this is being a bit harsh on myself, it's natural to want things to be calm and to feel like you have things under control. Yes, and that's exactly what I am trying to point out, my natural sinful self took over for the first three days of the fires. However, there comes a point when the Holy Spirit decides enough is enough. As I stood outside in the parking lot of Village Inn Tuesday night my eyes began to tear up. There was absolutely no way to control the circumstances and all I could think of was how sad I was for the families that were running for their lives. Driving home with the mountain in my rear view mirror only made things worse. I was safe and so far out East that I could see the whole mountain range. Looking from the deck of the house I saw the fire crawl closer and closer to the city, consuming everything in its path. What was there to do? There was no way to control this circumstance or predict the outcome. Who knew what the morning was going to bring?
In what seemed like just a few seconds life change for thousands of people. They learned over the the days that followed that the flames has destroyed their homes, burned all of their possessions, and for a few, that their loved ones did not make it. For me, I learned that scriptures is right, there is nothing good in me (Romans 7:18). It doesn't take effort to wake up and be selfish, it takes a miracle of Christ's doing to choose to fight the battle to live each day with others in mind. How I choose to live my day, engaged with others and their joys and loses is what matters most and can only be accomplished by his power and strength. So the question I am left with is whether or not I will force others to engage with my joys and loses or step back and choose others over myself? What's going to bring more glory to Christ?
"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians 4:20-21)
Brandy
