I told you to do something.

I almost didn’t do it myself.

I told you to write something from Sunday on a 3×5 card. One truth. One idea. One …something…that you wanted to remember, to make part of your life.

And then, I almost didn’t do it myself. I looked at all the thoughts from the weekend, all the thoughts from Sunday and I thought, “Only one? How can I pick only one? I want to remember them all. I want to do them all. I want to…”

And then I realized that it’s not right to invite people to do what we aren’t will to do ourselves, to invite people to try what we aren’t willing to try, to invite people to trust what we aren’t willing to trust.

So I wrote on my card.  And immediately I was challenged.

I wrote, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness…”

And I thought, “But I often seek my own kingdom, my own status, my own reputation. I want this to work because it will help me. I want people to notice this thing about God because then they will notice me.” Not always. Not every time. And not intentionally manipulating. But when I stop and think, I gotta be honest.

And I thought, “But often I seek my own righteousness, my own good reputation with God, my own being really good so God will notice me.” Not always. Not every time. But often I start doing good things because I think that I will make God happy with how righteous I am and then He will love me more, then He will do more for me.

The invitation Jesus gives us is to look for God’s kingdom, wherever it may be found, and rest in His goodness, not ours.