Character Part 2: The Power of Demonstration

Next to a home on a lake where we visit occasionally, a young man in his early forties has a home. Every time we visit and he is there, he has a different female partner with him. And always the lady friend has younger children with her, many who are teenagers and younger. They stay up late, drink heavily, and sleep late the following day. They always get up complaining about the way they feel because of all the excess the night before. I always am stirred by the questions “what are these young people learning, what impact are these life choices displayed by their parents and these adults saying to them, and what will be the results in their lives and their children’s lives?”

My spirit grieves. I am torn between wanting to rescue them and wanting to tell the parents and adults about the Love of Father, the real and abiding Love that provides a better choice, a better way, an experience that you can wake up in the mornings with joy, with peace and with contentment feeling good in body, spirit and mind.

What are we to do? How do we positively impact the lives of those around us? Those who God brings into our lives? One simple word: demonstration. The people around you and I are not looking for religion. The world is full of religions. We do not need a new religion. Those who are desperate do not need a new philosophy, or a new theory, or a new approach. They are looking for something that will change their situations, their circumstances, and their relationships permanently, and for the better.

They want to have the power to influence the situations, the circumstances and the relationships in their lives that are driving them crazy, where everything seems out of control, and more than anything else in their lives they are desperate for help with their circumstances, situations and relationships. These conditions that dominate their thoughts, their actions and their desires. Too often they look at the followers of Jesus and see the same messes that they are battling happening in our lives.

We must realize that even if this is in fact our present reality, it is not right/correct. Our spirits tell us it is not right/correct. There is a better experience with the Lord, our God. We must learn what is right/correct. We must determine how to change our reality. And we must change our experience permanently and for the better. Our lives, our daily living, must be a demonstration of the power and reality of this correct/right way of thinking. More than anything else, demonstration proves reality.

Demonstration is the verification of the existence of a belief that cannot be denied. It may be obscure, but it is not hidden. The answer is clearly presented, demonstrated and verified. The one who longs for, hungers after, and will not be denied, the one who knocks and keeps on knocking, the one who seeks and keeps on seeking, the seeker will find. The greatest teacher said, “Blessed is he who recognizes his need (of help), the Kingdom is given to him.”