Live and Do for Others

LAST WEEK'S CHALLENGE

This time last week, I encouraged you to give the gift of "NO" to someone in your life who has been content with maintaining a slave mentality. I challenged you to refuse to be anybody's enabler. Did you do it? Did you tell someone no? How did they respond? How did you handle their response?

Before we move into this week's challenge, I'd like to share my "NO" experience with you. I was asked for money and transportation from an elderly woman who is all too comfortable existing as a slave and whose hand is always extended, looking for a master to take responsibility for her life. I usually find it difficult to say no to senior citizens because I've been raised to respect them and to recognize the significance of their years. In this case, however, I was dealing with a seasoned citizen who seems to be more concerned with the quantity of her years than the quality of her life. 

I have rarely run into her and not been asked for something from her and I am not alone. I've quickly had to learn to avoid being taken advantage of by her. So, when she told me she didn't have anything to eat and asked for money, I started to walk past her but instead offered her $2.00 I had in my purse (like many of you, I don't usually carry cash). She was dissatisfied with that offer and proceeded to ask for a ride, to which I gave her the gift of "NO" and walked away.

In times past, I would have felt guilty for telling her no because she is a single woman in her sixties. However, the Bible admonishes us to try the spirit of a person by the Spirit of God (John 4:1&2), and God's Spirit urged me to leave that spirit in the shape it was comfortably in. That's not to say that I will never help her again, but it is to say that I will walk lightly with that one.

THIS WEEK'S CHALLENGE

The boss mentality is housed in humans who live in order to give and earn in order to disburse the best of themselves and their God-given abilities to others. Therefore, on this What Do You Have to Give Wednesday, I want each of us to challenge ourselves to live for someone else and earn income with someone else in mind today. We usually arise from our night's rest consumed with the tasks we need to accomplish for the day. Why don't we change our focus for the day and consider how we can contribute to helping someone else accomplish one of the many tasks ahead of them? Instead of prioritizing our wants with our earnings, why don't we intentionally meet at least one need for someone else today?

Remember, the boss mentality is one that keeps the big picture at the forefront of the mind. It esteems others not as more important than self, but prioritizes them above or before self. The boss knows how to pass strangers, leaving them feeling stronger and more significant than they did before encountering them. The boss studies people and invests in them in the best way possible to cultivate their potential. The boss isn't interested in being a lone ranger but purposes to propel others to positions, dimensions, and experiences beyond what he or she has even uncovered.

I am determined to live for someone else today. I will prayerfully consider others' needs and find at least one way to contribute to meeting them. I am committed to sacrificing something from my earnings to sow into the good ground of another so that I may inspire the boss in them to come alive. Will you join me?