No Agenda

For the past several days I've been doing my best to care for my wife as she's recovering from surgery.  I'm not the greatest nurse, by any stretch of the imagination, but we're muddling through. 

It's been kind of strange for us as our lives have had to come to a screeching halt this week.  We're both used to pretty busy schedules, so this forced season of quiet feels odd.  

We are also discovering opportunities to exercise patience and grace to one another.  It's a running joke in our family that if you get sick and I have to take care of you, it better only last for 48 hours because that's pretty much all I've got to give.  

But I'm learning that I actually have more to give, and I also think Merideth is learning how to receive more care than she is ordinarily comfortable with receiving.  

I haven't been perfect in my caregiving, to be sure.  I've made mistakes.  But I'm beginning to see so much more clearly how in spite of our imperfections if our motives for the good that we do are grounded in humility, God is glorified.  

The Apostle Paul put it like this: 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. - Philippians 2:3-4

In Bob Goff's latest book Everybody, Always he addresses the idea of "loving" people or doing good with an agenda:  

Loving people means caring without an agenda. As soon as we have an agenda, it’s not love anymore. It’s acting like you care to get someone to do what you want or what you think God wants them to do. Do less of that, and people will see a lot less of you and more of Jesus.

Practice loving people without an agenda today.  Find people in your life to whom you can offer grace and peace without expectations.  Seek out someone who needs to be served, and simply serve them.  Let people see Jesus in you.  

And may the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you now and always. Amen.