R & R

     Two words that I find are very difficult are the words “respect” and “responsible”. I’ve had them integrated into my vocabulary since I was 2 years old, listening to my mother when I ran away from her in the grocery store. I always like to sound and look smart, so I used these words whenever my brothers seemed out of line, and in order to complete second grade, I passed the spelling unit with these words. So why do I find these words so difficult when I know them so well?

     Maybe because actions speak louder than words.
     Respect is defined as “a feeling of appreciative, often deferential regard; esteem” by the American Heritage College Dictionary. The denotation of this word is not hard to grasp, yet when we see the contextual definition in the Bible, things can get a little bit more challenging. The way I see it, the Biblical definition of the word in part is “Showing humility by placing others higher than oneself; giving up your selfish desire to meet the requirements of gratitude; honoring one regardless of what they have earned, but for what they deserve.” And that is a lot harder than what it seems.
     Take the big picture. We have people complaining all the time, myself included, about high taxes, stupid government proposals, and government interference with our lives. Is that giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s?
     Take your job. Everyone has a supervisor or a manager who we just can’t believe got their by being as lazy or as stupid as they are. We think they need to earn our respect, and they never seem to be doing the right thing at the right time. Is that giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s?
     Now take your life, your time at home. How do you treat your parents, your grandparents, aunts or uncles? Do you write them off as senile, people living in the past; or do you constantly grudge about “unreasonable” expectations they have placed on you? Are you giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s?
     So what does this have to do with responsibility? As defined by thefreedictionary.com, responsibility is defined as “The obligation to carry forward an assigned task to a successful conclusion”. The difficulty with this phrase is found in it’s definition: the obligation to carry forward an assigned task. What is our assigned task?
     Respect is a responsibility that we have towards those around us. As ambassadors to this world, we are obligated to be representatives of the One who sent us. We have an obligation to do many things, but one of the first things people will notice is our respect for others. Because you cannot have respect for someone unless you first have a love for them. Not a weird, creepy kind of love, but the love of Christ that compels you to look past one’s faults and do the impossible. The love that Christ had for us when he died for us, the most unworthy things to be respected. When we have God’s vision, we have a whole new-found respect for all those things around us. And we regain respect of the responsibility that Christ has commissioned us on. And with this realization comes action.
     I think it’s time for a little R&R.


Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.  Matthew 22:21b-22Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Colossians 3:20Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. They are a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck. Proverbs 1:8-9 Hereby perceive we the love {of God}, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But who has this world's good, and sees his brother has need, and shuts up his bowels {of compassion} from him, how dwells the love of God in him?  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. 1 John 3:16-18