How's that Working for You?

 

How’s that Working for You?


     My older sister uses this phrase quite often when talking about the actions of other people.  I think that it is a great idea to stop and look at your life objectively and ask yourself “How is what I am doing working for me?”  That choice that I made a few months ago, “How is that working for me?”  We have a lot of ideas about life and eternity.  We sometimes think that we have it all figured out, but I think from time to time, we would benefit from stopping and saying to ourselves and others “How is that working for me?”  “How are my ideas, my beliefs, my thoughts, … how are they working for me?”  Mike Tyson is quoted as saying “Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.” 



We make a lot of plans, but we need to stop every once in a while and take an objective look. 


   I think that this can be an important principle in spiritual areas also.  We can come up with a lot of ideas of the nature of man, the existence and nature of God, ideas on the afterlife, the greatest needs of man, the biggest problems with our society, what might the solution be to whatever problem we may be experiencing, or a whole lot of other deep questions we might ask of life.  We develop our ideas of how we should live and how we should conduct our lives and we go about living our lives.  Would you mind if I ask, “How’s that working for you?”  You have decided to live your life a certain way, you have decided to treat people a certain way, you have developed some sort of a belief system. For instance – you might think that mankind (including you) is basically good and does not need any kind of transformation or change.  I think that if you only look at certain things in life, you might draw one conclusion, but if you were to see other perspectives, you might draw a quite different conclusion.  Have you ever heard of the blind men that were asked to evaluate the animal in front of them?


  The story goes that one man felt the side of the animal and said that it must be a big wall.  Another man felt the elephant’s tusk and exclaimed that it must be a spear!  The next man grabbed the trunk and said that they must be feeling a snake.  Another man felt one of the legs and said, “No, this must be a tree we are touching.”  The last man felt the tail and thought that he must be holding a rope!  Each man was viewing the animal from their perspective and was convinced of certain ideas.  I think that happens a lot in life, we see, and experience certain things of life and we draw conclusions of what we experience with our senses and ideas and thoughts.  In the story above, each man was convinced of his perspective… until they were told that they were all touching different parts of the same animal!

   If you have not yet become a Christian, may I encourage you of the value of reading the Bible and gaining an incredible perspective?  You will find that the Bible is the most awesome book on the planet!  It is filled with the history of mankind as they go about living their lives, it shows the good and the bad, it shows those who followed God and those who didn’t.  The Bible even shows those who made up ideas for gods of their own making.  It goes on to show how their lives turned out and, in the book of Revelation, it shows very clearly how they all ended up.  The Bible is worth your time to check out!


  If you are already a Christian, that is fantastic, but there are times when you should also, stop and look at your life and find out how well you are following after the Lord and applying the Bible in your life.  Paul encourages believers to do this every time they participate with the communion meal.  I think that it is also, a great idea to have some close Christian friends that can speak to you honestly and from time to time ask you, like my sister does “How’s that working for you?”

Written by Lee Malden 2021

For more information: email lmalden@hotmail.com

 

These are my thoughts today, what do you think?  Please leave me a response or email me and I would be happy to hear your thoughts.

 

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