God is Bigger Than… Jury Duty: A Devotional About a Life Truly Engaged
In the land of the free and the home of the brave, jury duty is a fact of life. Everyone thinks juries are a good idea but most people don’t want to be on one. Jury duty usually finds us hoping the “other guy” will be chosen for the jury and we just get to go home. After all, there are plenty of people that can serve on a jury and do a great job. Why do you have to be the one chosen? What about that “other guy?”
For most people, it’s easy to live life with great expectations for the “other guy.” Like jury duty, everyone agrees that something needs to be done. The question is who should do it? All around us are people in need of comfort, companionship, and reassurance. One look at our calendars, our energy levels and our to-do-lists and we’re confident than the “other guy” should be chosen to take care of the problem instead of us. Sometimes we convince ourselves that God has someone else in mind for the job too. Excuses come easily to mind: “God wants me to focus on my kids, or on my job, or my parents or my future. He’ll find some “other guy” to fix that problem. “
The truth is God has eliminated the whole concept of the “other guy.” There are no “other guys” in God’s family. As believers, each of us are chosen to reach out to hurting people with the love of Christ. There is no hoping that God will pick the “other guy”; God has picked you.
So what has God picked you to do for hurting people? Colossians 3:12 says it beautifully: “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” On the surface, this doesn’t sound so difficult. Showing compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience really sounds like just being nice. But you are chosen by God to be more than just nice. God wants you to spend each day being compassionate to the hurting, kind to the difficult, humble to the arrogant, gentle to the aggressive and patient to the infuriating. Accepting this path that God has chosen for you leads to a life engaged-truly engaged-in the world around you. God wants you to engage with hurting people so much that everyone can see you are different…everyone can see you are chosen.
God’s dream for you is not a mediocre life avoiding responsibility. God chooses each of us to touch others lives deeply and significantly. Choose to reach out to the co-worker that lost a parent or the neighbor that lost a job. Choose to walk away from gossips and walk into a church. Choose to turn off the TV and turn on your gifts to help others.
Life is not a giant jury call, waiting to see if you’ll be chosen by God to impact your world. You’ve been chosen; you’ve been called. The next time you think “Someone should do something about that,” take the time to ask God whether that someone is you. His answer might surprise you.