People watch the REACTION...more than the ACTION

LUKE 23:34
Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing." And the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice.

Stuff happens - Life Happens - It always has....it always will.

I think that even as Christ Followers - its no so much WHAT happens, but the reaction we have to what happens.

I mean we live in a fairy tale world if we expect that NOTHING wrong will happen, we will never get hurt, people wont hurt our feelings, or just stuff in general will not occur.

There is no better example to use - then ourselves and our own personal experiences. This weekend, I was faced with a choice, a decision to either REACT according to the "stuff", the "hurt" , or the "issues" of something that had happened.

While many emotions, ideas, thoughts, "what I should and even what I had the right" to do raced through my mind - I remembered the greatest example of the RIGHT REACTION and INTEGRITY in the middle of horrible, undeserving punishment, ridicule, and pain.....JESUS CHRIST.

While I did like many of us do at times---i tried to negotiate and barter with God...but God, I have a right, I was the one that this happened to.. etc... in the end - I realized that Integrity is not something others can give or take from us---but a gift that we ultimately control.

While they beat and cursed and spit upon Jesus - he simply took it all for the betterment and the freedom of all sinners who didnt deserve it. He even went to the extreme to say...Father Forgive them, for they no not what they do"

At times - the stuff, the mess, the crap of life that we dont understand, and the people who create it dont seem to care - I realized that my life ultimately is not about THEM, or what THEY do or did, or even about the ACTIONS of others - but my REACTION. Why? Because in my walk as a Christian - Others are watching my actions -- but just as much my reactions! And in the end when all was said in done -- I feel that my response, my actions, and my integrity showed that while LIFE happens....IT ALSO GOES ON!

So regardless of the issues, the situation, the loss, the hurt, the pain, etc.......react right - AND WATCH WHAT GOD CAN DO....................."WHATEVER IT TAKES"