Time Out: Weekly quiet times for the youth worker’s soul.
by Adam Wormann

Have you ever really thought about the questions that we ask when something doesn’t quite go our way? They’re actually pretty telling.

My wife and I have been praying about some things in our lives lately – a little about direction, a little about why some things went the way they have, and a lot of thanks for the way some things have gone lately. Personally, I often find myself asking a lot of the “why” questions about some of the less than perfect things. Whenever I do that, I usually come back to the “you” questions. “God, why do you do things like ______?” or, “Why does ______ happen?” A lot of times, these wind up being the wrong questions. Recently in my personal devotions, I came across this:

Romans 12:18 “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”

At first it seems somewhat unrelated. When I thought about the verse further, it’s much more a “me” type of verse. It encourages us to do whatever is in our power to make things right. On that note, I’d encourage you to do whatever you can in your life to resolve conflict with others. If you know things aren’t right, and there’s something you can do to help make them right, do it. For me, this is looking a little different right now.

This verse is saying, “Don’t look at other people as the problem – look to yourself first.” When there is an issue, I need to look first to myself, then look around. Is there simply a decision that I need to make? Is there something I need to do that I haven’t yet? Is there a sin issue I need to deal with? Those are usually the questions I need to ask before I ask the questions that point at God or others.

Quite bluntly, it’s much easier for us to shift blame or focus somewhere else. Very often, we need to focus inwardly first. Often, I hear that as a criticism dealing with our generation, but it really goes back to something Paul had to write about, and all the way back to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. The problem is our hearts. We need to deal with that first.

Ask yourself, “What is in my heart right now that I’m trying to put on other people? What do I have to do to deal with this first?

Posted on June 18, 2012