Attitude Adjustment

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Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season.         II Timothy 4:2

So, here we are, in the middle of football season. Not that I have any interest in the sport. In fact, I have never been to a professional football game in my life.

Well, not awake, anyway.

Years ago, when a man I did not approve of in the least occupied the White House, I had a dream about sitting in the bleachers at a football game. I have no idea who was playing; it didn’t matter. The sun was shining, and the stadium was full, except for a couple of seats next to me.

The main part of the dream began when the President and First Lady of the United States came and sat right next to me. There was a stir in the crowd; obviously, people were excited.

Well, not me. No sir, this lady was not impressed with them. I wasn’t going to go all gaga over “sitting next to the President! OMG! ” I wasn’t going to squeal, stare, ask for autographs, or otherwise make a fool of myself. In fact, I decided the moment I saw them out of the corner of my eye that I was not even going to look at them. Nope, I was here to watch football, and I was going to give my full attention to the game. (Yeah, right.) If they looked my way, they’d see one person who wasn’t going to fawn all over them. I knew what they’d done, I knew what their policies were, I knew they were ungodly, evil people. And so I sat in my smug self-righteousness, refusing to acknowledge their presence.

Sometime during the first half I spotted a couple of friends seated in another section of the bleachers. They were pointing in my direction, wide-eyed with excitement. When our eyes met, they grinned at me with a couple of thumbs-up gestures, bouncing in their seats as though they were about to take off flying. I didn’t know if they were close enough to see me roll my eyes, but I made it clear to them that I was above that kind of groupie-ism and was not about to stoop to the level of the immoral people sitting next to me.

At half-time I got up, stepped over the First Couple, mumbling “excuse me” without making eye contact, and made my way to the concession stands. My friends were there to meet me, still wide-eyed and bouncing with excitement.

“I can’t believe it! You’re sitting next to the President and First Lady!” one of them squealed.

“Yeah. So?” I replied in my coolest tone. They grabbed my hands, as though they expected me to start jumping up and down with them. They didn’t seem to notice my aloofness.

“Have you witnessed to them yet?!” asked the other friend, fully expecting a great “praise report.”

Pow. Right in the gut. My arrogance immediately melted away, replaced with utter shame and remorse.

“Um … not yet,” I stammered. ” – But I will!”

“Great! We’ll be praying for you!” they promised, and seeing everyone returning to their seats, we exchanged hugs, and I headed back to my mission field, a different and much more acceptable person than I had been moments before.

This time as I approached my row, the President got up and stood in the aisle so that I could take my seat more easily. I looked him in the eyes and smiled. “Thank you,” I said, and he said, “Hey, no problem.”

“By the way, I’m Ann,” I said, putting out my hand.

“I’m _______, and this is my wife, _____________,” he said with a hearty handshake and a gesture to his smiling wife.

“Yeah, I know,” I laughed. I was surprised to find that these were delightful people. And I was relieved that they didn’t seem to have any recollection of my inexcusable rudeness earlier. We made some small talk about what a beautiful day it was, and I was finding to my surprise that I genuinely liked these people! I was looking forward to seeing how the Lord was going to bring about the subject of the gospel, and getting to share with them what He had done for me. But to my disappointment, after a few minutes the two of them stood up, and the President said,

“We’re going to have to take off – lots to do! – but it was sure nice meeting you, Ann.”

But … but … but … my mind was protesting. No! They can’t be leaving! I haven’t told them about Jesus yet! But I just said, “What a shame, yes it was wonderful meeting you, too.”

I was about to ask the Lord why – why hadn’t He given me time to share His love? But I quickly realized that He had. I was the one who had blown it with my crumby attitude, wasting a whole half of the game showing my spiritual superiority, then realizing, I’m not superior to anybody. And I vowed I would never again pass up an opportunity to share Christ with someone – anyone – ever again, even if it meant just showing His love through kindness and respect.

Nowadays, with all the hatred coming and going in the world of politics, it’s east to get sucked into the controversy and into some unChristian  behavior. I have two approaches that I try to stick with:

1.) Acknowledge that I don’t even come close to knowing everything that’s going on, much less knowing people’s hearts.

2.) Remember that the Bible gives us one thing to do in regard to our leaders:

PRAY.

Prayer: Lord, I don’t deserve Your grace. Salvation isn’t something any of us deserve, yet we forget that sometimes. After you’ve changed our lives for the better, we can become so judgmental toward others whose lives are still far from You. Forgive us, Lord, and help us never to forget what You’ve done for us, never to hesitate to tell others where they can find the same life-changing hope. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Published by seekingdivineperspective

I am a forgiven sinner and adopted child of God, seeking to see life from His perspective - as opposed to the world's flawed perspective - and living my life accordingly.

Published

31 thoughts on “Attitude Adjustment”

  1. This is so convicting, Ann! “Nowadays, with all the hatred coming and going in the world of politics, it’s east to get sucked into the controversy and into some unChristian behavior.” Glad you woke up (and are waking us up) to the Truth 🙂

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  3. This is something I constantly need to remind myself, and one of the hardest things to wrestle with. But I love your example. Often we don’t think we should “stoop” to other people. But if we want people to see Christ in us, then that thinking is not the way to go. God bless!
    ❤ Abi Lyn

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      1. Eek! So true! :/ Father God open not just our eyes to see the needs, but also open the eyes of our hearts so that we have your compassion to love the sinner and hate the sin. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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  7. Ann, now we have another thing in common. God speaks to us through dreams, as well as he has gifted us with writing and with songs, and we still own cassette players. Yes, there is a lot of hatred and fighting that goes on among Christians, especially on social media, over politics and over right and left, and which one is superior to the other. So many people waste so much time trying to defend a human being against another human being, that they lose sight of why God put us here. He put us here to share Jesus Christ, and to give people the only hope and change there is, for men will give us false promises that they either cannot keep or they have no intention of keeping. But, God’s promises to us never fail. God never fails. Jesus never fails. And, his grace never fails! So, Christians need to stop trying to defend men who are just as human as we are, and instead they need to be sharing Christ with a dying world, for this is the only way we are truly going to be able to change the world around us.

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  8. Great post! I had a dream once that someone had turned me into Paris Hilton. (LOL!) And in the dream, all I knew was that I totally did not want to be her! I think the dream’s underlying message may have been to let go of some of my materialism.

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    2. Thank you so much! I guess right now I need wisdom to make good choices with my time. There isn’t enough time to do everything I want to or “ought to,” and I need to prioritize. I want my priorities to be the same as God’s for my life. How can I pray for you?

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      1. Aww thanks for asking. I have someone use to go to our church who isn’t as stable and is quite toxic I don’t know what to do with his harassment. That prayer would mean a lot.

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