I Would’ve

 

We’ve all made that comment.  The moments that we’ve seen,  or heard something, someone else has, done, or said, that we would’ve surely done different.

The epic pass we would have caught, to win the game…… from our chair.

The fruit we would’ve never eaten if God told us not to.

My most recent was the spaghetti sauce jar, that, “I would’ve walked an extra ten feet to the trash can if I wasn’t so lazy.”

Yes, I said that…. today.

It’s among my pet peeves of people leaving shopping carts in the middle of the parking lot, when they obviously think the returns were meant for everyone but them.

Yes. I said that too. ( I’m sorry, Jesus. )

I think my strong dislike for those things began in high school, when I worked for a supermarket. My job at the end of the night, after, I cashed out my drawer from checking, was to either clean the bathroom, or browse the store, for the items that others had just left behind wherever they pleased.

I wondered if people realized, that Someone, will have to pick that up. That it doesn’t just fly back to its shelf on its own right? Father, forgive the bitterness.

Ok. Let me get back to “I would’ve”.

Would we?

The only difference that statement makes coming out of my mouth is- Did I?

If all I chose to do today is rant about the spaghetti sauce, then how am I any different?

So, I chose, while I ranted, (still a work in progress) to pick up the sauce and put it in the trash.

Now, as I’m pondering on the situation and patting myself on the back, the Holy Spirit nudged me to think that maybe, (that whole benefit of the doubt thing)-

the sauce rolled from a cart unnoticed and the shopper left it there unintentionally.

Yes. Let’s go with that. Love would- Look for the best.

My point is this. We have the ability to rewrite the wrongs of others. Not by talking about them, which gets us no where, and sauce still remains on the ground, or, we can,  Be the integrity we would like to see in someone else.

We can choose to bypass that forbidden fruit. We do have Grace, right?

We can put our carts up and put the items we changed our minds about where we got them, because yes, someone, does have to do that.

Why not, go the extra mile? Or even just ten feet?

You may not be able to make that catch on the professional football field that you’re watching from your chair, like you think you could,

or drive a race car as well as someone else, (when you don’t even own a race car,)

you can definitely try, ….

All joking aside, ok, it’s not joking, let’s call it for what it is, we may not be as great as we think we are……

unless we do what we would’ve, instead of just talk about it, and then, not get prideful that we’ve done better-

Just when I think I’m more like Jesus, I see I need to be, more, like Jesus!

The truth is;

You can be the light you want to see in the world, and not just talk about what you would’ve done.

Praise Jesus, He’s given us all the same ability to do, and not just say!

I think Jesus may even have said something along those lines…..

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Matthew 22:37-39