Here lately, God has allowed me to be in several situations and positions where I have had to be something to someone who wasn’t that to me. (probably didn’t make sense…huh?)
When my Granny passed a little over 4 years ago, only one person checked on me to see if I was okay and to express her condolences. One person! Now, I am the type of person that will send food to your house, take you out to make you laugh, call you, text you etc., just because that is who I am. Here recently, several of my friends are going through the same thing and my natural reaction is to immediately reach out to them and be ‘there’. Then ‘I’ kick in and remember how they weren’t there for me, but then God steps in and reminds me of who He is to me, despite how I fall short in those same areas with Him. God is faithful even when I am consistent in my prayer life or study time.
So, I let ‘I/me’ sit down, so that I can be there for my friends regardless of how they did or didn’t respond to my situation, only to make God smile.
Honestly, I have an expectation of the people around me, to handle me and to show love to me the same way that I do to them and with them, but that is not how it happens. I think that I (we ) should realize that people have different qualities and not everyone knows what to say during certain situations, and to know that person and to love that person, you just have to accept that maybe they didn’t know how to be ‘there’, and you have to turn to God because ultimately that person doesn’t have what you need anyway.
One of my life goals is to be there for people, and to be a blessing to people in the capacity that God allows me to be, and often times, that won’t be reciprocated, but because of that, the harvest will be even greater. There has to be a blessing in loving a person beyond their capability to be there for you in the same capacity and there is a blessing in knowing how to be ‘there’.
Now, never let anyone take advantage of you, but know when God is calling you to stand in the gap without reciprocity.