I got enough emails in my inbox to convince me that I'd done
a poor job of explaining why this charming Shaker advice is meaningful to me.
I think what it means is that God asks of each of us that we take responsibility to make His world a better place, that we take physical action in His world, and that we do what we can, according to what we believe is His will for us. Think of an opposite for this advice and it's a bit easier to get your arms around.
Perhaps he doesn't hear those self-pitying type of "why me" prayers, or those "please God, just make me better" prayers unless we are also willing to do something to make someone else's life better. See, no action on our parts, just petitions. It's like praying to hit Lotto and if we do, then we'll make meaninfil changes. My guess is that God wants the changes up front, and that our prayers are answered, although maybe not in the way we want them to be answered.
Did you ever hear that old saw...a man is in a row-boat with God, and the man is rowing, and God is steering. After a while, the man says, "this isn't fair, I'm doing all the work while you just sit there and steer". So God says, "you want to switch, you want to steer for a while". The exhausted man says, "yes", and moves toward the tiller, then God says, "just one thing, you can steer all you want, but I don't row".
What this means is that anttime I want I can take complete control over my life, and my role in His world...but that I shouldn't expect to hit Lotto.
His will be done, not Colin's will be done. So I try not to complicate that. I think he wants me to try to make His world a better place.
What this all means is do something, anything to make God's world a better place, and my reward for that, is the work I just did. Kind of humbling, but imagine a world where everybody did something for someone else, before they did things for themselves. Not a bad place. God bless, Colin
Ps. Please remember that I just another guy like you. I'm no minister, priest, or Rabbi. This is just what I think.
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