I saw this bumper sticker on a car yesterday.  I wish I was able to take a picture, but since I was following the vehicle, it was hard to get out my camera and drive at the same time.  The sticker said:

My other tractor is my neighbors.

It the end it was just an advertisement for Tractor Supply’s neighbor day, but boy, it sure made me pause for a while, trying to figure out the meaning.

And then it hit me!

Oh, I have my tractor that I take care of and then I take care of my neighbors tractor as well.  Just like it was my own.  Hm.. interesting message– one that sound’s sort of familiar.

The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  Mark 12:31 NLT

4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others Philippians 2:4 NKJ

Are you taking care of your neighbor’s tractor?

I bounced around through lots of words, and last night I debated between two.  However, after lots of thinking, and praying, I have settled on this one word:

Stretch

I think this word not only fits the “buffet your body daily” idea, but also sums up a lot of my goals this year.  It seems so obvious to the physical nature, as I continue to heal my injured knees through increased flexibility via stretching.  But this word also describes so many other things – stretching out to others, stretching my influence in my family, stretching my knowledge at work, stretching my dollars, and most importantly stretching out to my creator.

How about you, what is  your one word for 2012?

It’s just been one of those years – where the business of living life has overcome my ability to prepare for important events that lie ahead.  Or maybe I a just have procrastinated.

Anyway, I am sure you are also finding some last minutes things to scramble for, they may not be as large of scale as the scramble that lies ahead of me. And really some of that hustle is part of the fun of celebrating Christmas. I mean who doesn’t love getting in all that last-minute traffic on Christmas Eve?

But let’s not let that happen to our spirits.  Keep that in the forefront and guard that part of your life with extreme prejudice.

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 New International Version (NIV)

 ⁹ This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love;¹⁰ that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; ¹¹ that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God.  Philippians 1:9-11 New Century Version (NCV)

I hope that you will be filled today!

Anyway, I have still been thinking about that good old Samaritan and they way he impacted others.  That and a quote I read last week while I was busy doing nothing.

Love is the effort and desire to make someone else everything they were created to be.

To me that is a profound defintion of love, and one that you should stop and think about today.  This defintely would be on the mind of the samaritan as he addressed that dude on the road.  And more importantly can be very broadly applied to all of the relationships that you have.  Just think about that quote and the way you interact with you co workers, children, spouse and enemies!!!

Hm, seems like Philipians 2:

¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

 ^10-14I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it. Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. I don’t mean that your help didn’t mean a lot to me—it did. It was a beautiful thing that you came alongside me in my troubles. Philippians 4:10-14 The Message (MSG)

This is an excellent example of Philippians 2, and I think that it’s hard sometimes to find examples of people living that way in our society.  Last week I was teaching some high school kids about the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector from Luke 18, and during that class it was difficult for the kids to describe acts of humility.  The actions of this young man are an example of humility and selflessness in so many ways.

I applaud him and thank him for his example.  I am not so sure I would have stopped when I ran cross country.

 ^1-4If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. Philippians 2

Yes, and that a pretty important part of life – especially for those who follow the Christ.

For the last year or so Andrew and I change the background of our home computer each month from to a background from the selection of month themed backgrounds at Smashing Magazine.  This month we could not find something we really liked, so I removed the August background and replaced it with this one:

Yes, it’s a great reminder to live with intention and get out and actually meet with people.  I’ll tell you, I need this reminder on a daily basis, because personally I am content to sit in my cube and interact with my monitors.  But the Christ as encouraged us to impact people, and we do that with interactions.

To wrap this up on this Friday, I thought this verse from Philippians would be perfect.  It seemed even more so since it happens that both boys were assigned this verse as their memory verse this week!!!

 ¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

So due to that and because it’s Friday, which means that everyone is thinking about Football or the coming weekend,  here is just a simple thought for today.

I found this quote which I thought was worthy of some consideration

“Our duty as men is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist.” – Teilhard de Chardin 

It’s an interesting thought, and one that I think is even easier for those that have entrusted themselves to the Christ.  Take a look at here

¹³I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13  New International Version (NIV)

Then it got tense, and there we some mild disagreements and debates and I felt him coming back.  Who do you ask?  Me!  The selfish, short tempered, brash me.  And I could sense that others where seeing, or I guess in this case hearing him as well.  ARGH!  Now, I had a platform to stand on that was well positioned.  More than likely I may have even been in the “right”.  But really, it’s not about me, and the tone that was coming across the phone was changing the tone of the meeting in the negative in a hurry. ARGH!

Later in the day I watch a video clip about how we live lives behind veneers.  The talk presented two views the human view and the God view.  Interestingly enough the human view was about well, the human itself, and the God view was about all the other humans on this earth.  It all ended with a fantastic summation and a challenge – are we exposing the human like veneer or the God like veneer?  Is it about me, or is it about everyone else.

It seems to me that life actually works out better when we take the God like approach and focus on others.  Somehow in some way, that way always seems to have some way of making it better in the end for us!  Yet, we still want to put ourselves in the lead.  It’s quite a paradox!

Well, I hope I was able to push myself back into the background as the meeting went on.  What I do know is that the rest of the day, I felt like a black cloud of frustration was hanging over my head, since I know I let him back!  The great thing is that I have a new day to start over and let God shine in my interactions.

How about you?  Are you choosing the human like thing or the God like thing?

 ¹ Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.