You know what made me mad? I went to a grocery store the other day, and the cashier was really slow. Grrr, man. What makes you mad? You know, if I told Kyla that; Kyla would be like: so you have the luxury of living in a country where you can drive a motor vehicle to a store, that pre-packages food for you, and you still find a reason to be upset - over the slowness of the cashier? Ooh, I know, that must be so tough!
What makes you angry? Shane, you don't understand. My husband left his underwear on the floor for the 17,000th time. I know. You know that guy that you would expect to die for you, if an intruder came in, that guy? Yeah, must be tough. It must be tough living with someone who would die for you. I know. Shane, my wife falls asleep too early. I know. I know; that's annoying.
What makes you angry, and how does that compare to what God's doing in the world? Sometimes we just need some perspective.
What I find is that people with anger problems, they don't really have an anger problem. They have an energy problem. They're not giving enough of their energy away, so they have too much of it.
The cure for anger's not prayer. The cure for anger is giving your life away to something so much, that you don't have any energy to be angry about stupid stuff.
So you might be saying: well what could I do? What could I do? If you can't think of anything to do, go to FredHollowsFoundation.com, just Google them and give them $30, and at least give sight to one blind kid. By the way, I get no royalties from them, I just believe in them. On your way out today, you can purchase a set of CDs or a USB, and you can know that when my Director of Charity goes to China in a few months, that it's going to be given to mentally handicapped children in China. You can do something.
You could call your pastor this week, and go: hey, I've been sitting on the fence. I've been burying my talent. Where can I get involved in this place? What can I do to help you bring the kingdom of heaven to the earth right here in Hastings? What can I do? You could do that, but you have to set full intention of doing it. It's not going to happen by accident.
I've got a friend who left church; and I asked him: why did you leave church? They said: well, we're just tired of the church being so selfish and self-centred. I said: well I get that, but leaving's not going to fix it; but they left. You know what their life looks like today? They get up in the morning, they eat breakfast together. They each go to their different jobs, they come home, they have some sort of afternoon tea, they eat supper, they watch two episodes of Modern Family and one episode of NCIS, they go to bed. Then they wake up the next day and they repeat it. What a life.
So she left the church because it was selfish, but now her life has become what she hated in the first place. Is she a bad person? Absolutely not, she's one of the best people I know, but the truth of it is is that when you don't intentionally set forth to be salt and light in this world, it will not happen by accident.
In the kingdom - this is so important - it's not the summation of what I've done, like addition; it's the measure of what I've done, based on what I was given. How's your ratio look? How's your ratio?
Your reward in heaven is not determined by what you've done; it's determined on the ratio, of what you've done versus what you've been given. What's your ratio? What have you done with what you've been given?
When heaven hits earth, it will reveal whether your life was built on something that matters, or something that will be burned up. Do you have an intense sense now, that your life is about something bigger? If not, why not?
Listen, no matter what decision you make today, God loves you the same. It's not about God loving you. It's not about being forgiven. If your goal's to be forgiven, just, I don't know, go ahead and die, whatever, you're forgiven. But if your goal is to live the fullest life, and bring heaven to every place we see hell on this earth, then there is so much opportunity for us to unbury our talent. I'm urging you not to be people who just sit on the fence, and don't do anything at all.