You do what you can do

All to often, I get derailed, thinking about what isn't being done by someone else, what someone else needs to do, what I need help with, what I can't do myself and I expect someone else to come along and do. I think Matthew 7:5 answers my derailment best "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."

I am a hypocrite? Really? Yup. See, concentrating on what someone else should be doing is not what I should do. So why should I complain (even just in my head/heart) about someone else not doing what they should do when I am doing the same? I shouldn't. Sometimes I do it anyways. And that's human. And that's normal. And that's being a hypocrite. I am a hypocrite. And I don't want to be.

While I do believe God expects us to help others, I don't think he expects us to help others at the expense of us failing to do what we should be doing. He has a plan for all of us. A purpose for all of us. A reason that we are here and a task for us to complete. We all have different tasks and some of our tasks can only be done with others' help, but I'm learning more and more every day that there is always something we can do. Even if its just preparation -- doing what I can do to get ready for what I will need to do when someone else does what only they can do.

Bottom line is, I should never just sit and think about what someone else isn't doing. Letting myself get derailed by someone else will NEVER be my purpose. There is always something I can do, even if it doesn't seem as important as what I could do if someone else did something else. If the path is not clear to do what seems like the most important thing to do, then that's a pretty clear indication that, while that task may be essential, it is not the task at hand at that moment.

So today, I am focusing on the task at hand. There are tasks that have been done and they are done and gone. There are tasks that are to come and they will come when it is their time. All I can do anything about is the task at hand right now and I am determined to live purposefully and do what I can do when I can do it because this might be the only chance I have to do it.