There’s someone I know who lost his job. COVID did that to a lot of people. A while later, a coworker was heard saying, “I really miss him.” And yet he’s made almost no effort to connect outside of that workplace. That man who lost his job said, “He only misses what I did for him. He doesn’t miss me at all.”
There’s a danger of seeing people only as what they can do for you. I have that tendency, and I fight against it. One of my biggest flaws is narcissism. We all know the world doesn’t revolve around us, but do we realize even our social world isn’t centered on us?
If a friend of yours suddenly stops reaching out to you when they don’t need you, that’s kind of insulting. They’re treating you like they do the friendly person at the grocery store checkout. “It’s nice seeing you, but if the prices at the store go up I’m not going to stop in just to connect.” It’s a consumer relationship. “You have nothing else I value, so bug off.”
Imagine the being who created everything there is being told, “If you don’t give me the life I want I’m not going to praise you.” That’s beyond insulting - that’s disrespectful disdaining contempt.
That’s why I praise God, even when things don’t go my way. He created the universe - from the quantum field fluctuations to all the galactic mega-clusters and the filaments connecting them. What’s not to praise?
If you love someone only when they make you feel good about yourself, was it really love in the first place? God loves you, not simply for how you make Him feel about Himself. He needs nothing from you. You can’t add or subtract a fraction of an iota to what God is. That’s love.
Do you dare love Him when things aren’t coming up sunshine and lollipops?
He’s God. He deserves it, even if we don’t feel like it.
Love God, even after losing your job.
