What Keeps Us From Serving Others? – Part 3

“But they paid no attention and went off — one to his field, another to his business. Matthew 22:5

Indifference. A well-known comedian quipped, ‘Scientists announced today that they’d found a cure for apathy. However, they claim no one has shown the slightest bit of interest in it.’ When it comes to communicating, that could be said of many of us; we’re indifferent to how we come across. We may not necessarily feel superior to others, but we don’t go out of our way to get to know them either. Why? Because it’s hard work! In reality, indifference is another form of selfishness that keeps you from connecting with people. English novelist George Eliot put it like this: ‘Try to care about something in this vast world besides the gratification of small selfish desires. Try to care for what is best in thought and action—something that is good apart from the accidents of your own lot. Look on other lives besides your own. See what their troubles are, and how they are borne.’ People truly appreciate it when you make the effort, no matter how small, to try and see things from their point of view. Paul writes, ‘Be kindly, affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another’ (Romans 12:10). Everybody you meet is wrestling with a fear or fighting a battle, and if you’re caring and sensitive, God will give you a word that can lift them. Isaiah said, ‘The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary…’ (Isaiah 50:4). What a gift—to be able to lift someone who is struggling.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, Help me show interest in others, to care for them as you care for them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen