Two miles are better than one mile...

Jesus, what in the world were you thinking when you said this...

“If someone forces you to go with you one mile go with them two miles.”  

Matthew 5-7 is not a good idea or a sermon for Jews only, it is for us, as followers of Jesus.  So with that said, in the last few days I have been challenged over and over again with these words of Jesus in Matthew 5:41.

A tangible example...

The other night there was a great idea stirring in our house to make chocolate chip cookies stuffed with oreos.  As the cook and our daughter headed to Wal Mart to grab all the ingredients for the cookies, I was at home finishing up the dishes from dinner.  

As I was washed each dish, I became more and more agitated about the idea of the cookies being made, after all the kitchen was clean.  But the longer I stewed, the more conviction came my way from the verse above.  Again and again all that was reverberating in my soul, was “2 miles are better than 1...walk 2 miles!”  

After trying to justify myself to my Jesus, which never works, I surrendered to the 2 mile theory and expressed to Jesus that I would be glad to do the dishes after the cookies were made.

Funny thing though...When the cooks came back from Wal Mart they decided to wait to make the cookies at a later date.  

The moral of the story is this...

So often we are willing to travel our 1 mile, doing the religious minimum, and then gloating over the great job we did.  For me it was doing the dishes from dinner that night.  

But, many times we are unwilling to go the 2 miles, where God gets the greater glory.  On that particular night, the 2 miles would of been me washing the dishes from dinner and then happily washing the “cookie dishes.”  

Quick questions...

1. What areas do you tend to travel the minimal 1 mile?
2. What would it look like for you to begin traveling 2 miles in this particular area of your life?

I close with a quick verse that I love...

“Your attitude should be the same of that as Christ Jesus: who being in nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.”  Philippians 2:5-6