lifeasmission

The Hardest Thing in the World

August 17, 2005

I think I know what the hardest thing in the whole world is.

This past week was really great. I spent Monday through Thursday with some of my family up at Pelee. We had a great time. The boat motor was broken and we spent a few days working to fix it. That was hard, but in the end all it took was two turns of the idle screw.

My sister made a friend up on the island who wanted to go running one day. I agreed only to discover that she was in training for cross country and was planning on running about 5 miles and wanted to do so in 40 minutes. This too was extremely hard, but I escaped the clutches of death (barely) and live to brag about it.

I spent 4 days in extremely close quarters with my grandma who, though I love as much as life itself, feels the need, as I suppose all good grandmas do, to meticulously look over every single need of everyone all the time. For someone so radically independent, I find this acutely frustrating and hard, yet I live on.

Friday and Saturday I was in Youngstown helping to run a soccer clinic. Both days we were out in 90+ degree heat and 100% humidity for 4 straight hours with few water breaks. Add to this the pleasure of working with children of all ages complaining, crying, and peeing their pants (not kidding!) and you have a very hard task. Nevertheless, the weekend came and went and as I look back, all things considered, it went very well.

I spent Saturday afternoon and evening with my friends Nick and Katie Glatzer. They are a wonderful couple who have hold in high regard. In a conversation as we were driving Nick began to talk about the difference between getting and receiving. As he talked and as I listened and thought I came to a conclusion. Receiving is the hardest thing in the world.

Getting comes very easy to us. We are told from birth, “You can do anything you set your mind to.” Translation, try hard enough and you can get anything you want. Our entire culture is framed by the very idea that the key to life is getting more and getting better. If you ever want to scare yourself I dare you to sit down and really think about how thougoughly this mentality in engrained in almost everything we are a part of: school – get better grades, work – get a promotion and raise, living – get a better standard of living and on the list goes. Intrinsic to the idea of getting anything is a firm focus on ourselves. We become the focus of our attention. If you get something it is because you worked harder, proved smarter, tried longer, or perhaps simply are better than the next person.

This is not the case with receiving. True receiving is completely contrary to this. When one truly receives something they do so knowing that it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with the giver. One can never truly receive something if they think they are taking posession of it based on their own worth, merit, or effort. We get things based on our worth, merit, or effort, but we do not receive them. Just think about it – anythine something is given to us our first reaction is to do 1 of 2 things. Either complement ourselves on the fact that apparently there is something special about us or we want to give or do something in return. Why? Because if we can give or do something in return then we can pacify ourselves with the notion that we are just as generous or considerate as the other person. Of course I am not saying favors should never be reciprocated or that the receiving of a gift is not adequate motivation for us to want to give in return. I am merely pointing out that we are quite thouroughly conditioned to work towards feeling as though we are deserving of what comes our way.

This is a huge problem when it comes to our relationship with God. God’s dealings with mankind have always been based on His greatness and not ours. It is precisely because God is love that we are loved. This makes it very difficult for those of us who have been raised to believe that we need to earn everything in life. In fact, it is precisely because of this reality that the prospect of receiving salvation (as opposed to earning, deserving, or trying to compenste for it) is so difficult. Nevertheless, the Bible could not be clearer – if we are to experience salvation it will be because we receive God and His grace into our lives.

Everything in me doesn’t want this to be the way it is. I want to earn what I get. I want to deserve evrything offered to me. I want to be able to look at the next guy and say, “I worked harder than you and I deserve better.” That is why I think receiving is the hardest thing in the world, becasue it runs straight against what feels most natural and comfortable. That’s why I am so thankful that I believe in a God who tells me that His love is so great that He will do for me what I cannot do for myself – change my heart to receive and thereby become a wellspring of giving in proportion to what I am willing to receive – and God in inexhaustible!

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