Often, when taking a car trip, you have several options as to which route to take to get there. You can take the ‘fastest’ route, which usually involves major highways and may be a longer distance, but often has fewer stops. Then there is the ‘scenic’ route, which may be fewer miles overall, but often involves more stops, travel through small towns, and slower highway speed limits. How do you choose? If you are in a hurry, often you want the fastest route to just git er done quickly, maybe even passing people along the way. If we have more time, or want to enjoy the ride, we might enjoy the stops along the backroads.
Who, then, are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. Psalm 25:12
I hate being in a hurry. If I am running late while driving to a meeting in another town, my irritability levels are high, I get angry at other drivers more easily, and my tendency to speed increases greatly. Even if I make it on time, no one wins. If I give myself enough margin, say 5-10 minutes or more, I don’t fly off the handle when I encounter a slow vehicle, road construction, or other slight delays. I make space for the unknowns I may encounter, even for opportunities to help someone if needed, or just visit with others for a few minutes if I arrive early at my destination. The same happens when we create enough margin in our lives to listen to what God is trying to say to us, instead of just putting our heads down and plowing forward. There are many chances we may be passing up. Margin gives us time and opportunity to be open to what God wants to show us in any and every situation.
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” Isaiah 30:21
In your business dealings, often there is an honest way and an unethical or even illegal way to go about doing things. Either route may accomplish what you want to get done, but the means to get there may be significantly different. You may even say ‘what I did was not illegal’, but at the same time if you took advantage of someone or a situation, it may rub some people the wrong way, and may make them less likely to desire future interactions with you. Especially if you run a business, you may have an opportunity to overcharge someone or just not provide the service they need. In the short term, it may benefit you, but in the long run, it erodes relationships. Is there a best way to do business?
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matthew 7:13-14
So, when you make choices each day, it is easy to get stuck in the mode where everything we do tries to benefit us at the expense of hurting others. It’s my way or the highway. But when we try to put others needs before our own, even if they don’t deserve it or appreciate it, we do the right thing. They may not acknowledge your kindness, but others may, and you will have fewer regrets in life knowing that you took the right way, the high way.
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
Strength and Courage in Christ,
Clark
