This was originally written Oct 25, 2007. Have you ever met a person that had the gift of pushing you to be better? I haven’t always considered these people to BE gifts, but more of a pain in the rump! They don’t give you all of the answers, they don’t sympathize when you are actually the problem, they ask the questions that make you have to work for the answer(s) even though they probably know the answers already… God brought one such person to mind today, and just had to stop and take a minute to thank God for him. In so many ways this person challenged me to grow, learn, accept the things in life I cannot change, and accept the fact that we all make mistakes (I am not the only one, fix it and move on), and submit to authority. People like this don’t just affect “one aspect” of your life, they challenge every part of your life. They may start in one area, but eventually it spreads: home, family, work, church, ministry, friends….what ever you do their words and actions seem to follow you in your mind.
What brought this person to mind, you may ask? I think that I need to become this type of person for someone in my life. Not that I am making a conscious decision thinking “I am going to set this person straight and teach them things.” It is more of a realization that God has put me in the place in this person’s life, that this is what I have to do, because this is what they need. Quite frankly…I don’t really want to be one of the ones to do it. Sometimes it is easier to just let things go than try to make them right. That is not what we are here for though, is it?
When the LORD calls us to hold someone accountable, to challenge them, or be the rock for someone to break themselves against, we have to do that. We could back out of it, but it isn’t right. I would never want the people that have invested in me, to have quit, not obeyed what they were told to do, to have given up or not tried because it was easier to just “let it go.” I am who I am today because there were/are people in my life that care enough to let things be difficult and not sugar coat the tough stuff.
The LORD puts these people strategically in our lives. We can’t be stagnant if we want to live for Him, if we want to fulfill the plan He has for us…
… to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Isa 61:3-4
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