Response or Reaction?

Intro:

Hey good evening Parkside!!!! Again I am so pumped we will be re-opening the church. The Nursery and Parkside Kids will be available. We ask that you respect the space of others in your best effort to practice social distancing. Masks are welcome but not required. If you want to wear a mask we ask that you bring your own. I hope you are able to join us at 11am on June 14th. If you are unable to attend for any reason the Sunday morning service will be posted online via our Facebook page and on our website parksideassembly.com.

Which leads me to another update. Since we are re-opening the church, Wednesday Night small group will resume at 7pm in the sanctuary starting June 17th. That means at this time we will no longer be posting Wednesday Nights online. However you are more than welcome to join us starting June 17th at 7pm in the sanctuary.

When COVID happened and we closed the doors we launched into this series on Wednesday Nights called “A Biblical Perspective During Trying Times.” The church has received a lot of positive feedback concerning this series. A number of weeks ago we talked about responding vs reacting. Tonight I will be revisiting Responding vs. Reacting. I am sure many of us have seen the protesting and rioting. So I will be encouraging each of to respond rather than react.

Reaction

What is a reaction? I found a couple definitions that I hope will be helpful as we move forward.

A reaction is: resistance or opposition to a force, influence, or movement

2. Heightened activity and overaction succeeding depression or shock

Think about those definitions for a moment. Overaction succeeding a depression or shock. Have you ever been there. Let me illustrate this for you.

When I served at Teen Challenge there were plenty of times I overacted to different circumstances, but one in particular comes to mind. I was talking to one of the guys just before dinner and he proceeds to tell me an inappropriate joke. We will this guy “Little Johnny.” I said to Little Johnny thats completely inappropriate, you shouldn’t tell jokes like that. Maybe fifteen minutes later all of us sat down for dinner. To give you an idea of what dinner looked like, we would sit down at round tables and there were five round tables. Little Johnny sat at a round table that was behind me. We begin to eat and I hear Little Johnny ask someone else if they want to hear a joke. I quickly turned around in my seat and gave him the look of you better not. Well, he decides to go ahead and begin telling the joke. At this point I react. I call Little Johnny and two of the staff members into the office after dinner. Mind you Little Johnny has had a history of being problematic. To make a long story short, since I am in my emotions and I am at this point in my anger and frustration for whatever reason I say “Little Johnny what do I have to do jump up on the table and yell don’t do it.” I say this as I jump up on my desk.

As funny as that story maybe it was true. I absolutely in that moment overacted to the shock of complete disobedience.

Maybe you haven’t done anything as extreme as that or maybe you have, however I think we can all agree that my reaction was no more appropriate than his joke.

I understand that we are going through some of the most difficult times in our lives right now. Whether the difficult times are a result of COVID, the loss of a loved one, the injustice sweeping our nation, or a loss of a job whatever the reason maybe these circumstances can easily suck us into reacting. Reacting causes us to act our our emotions before we have to time to process our emotions. As followers of Jesus we are called to higher calling than to overact to shock.

Lets look for a moment at the other definition of reaction. A reaction is: resistance or opposition to a force, influence, or movement. For some this happens when they are invited to church or invited to have a relationship with Jesus. They resist or oppose when faced with there need for a Savior or faced with having to admit that they have sinned against God. Sometimes reacting causes to resist or oppose what we need. In that case we miss out to what is vital to us living the lives God created us to live.

I think it is very fair to say that reacting is not how we want to live our lives. So if we shouldn’t react what should we do?

Lets explore the Bibles perspective. I am going to share a few different biblical reference so you will want to write them down and look them up later.

Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Ephesians 4:2 NIV

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Proverbs 15:18 NIV

A hot-tempered person stirs up conflict, but the one who is patient calms a quarrel.

Romans 12:12 NIV

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Galatians 6:9 NIV

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Those are just a few scriptures that give a biblical perspective that calls us to respond rather than react.

Respond

A response is not in the heat of the moment decision. A response goes beyond the moment. In light of current events I have spent some considerable amount of time in prayer and having conversations with other faith and community leaders. A response is defining your purpose, your desired goals or outcomes, and having vision to see it through, and a plan, all guided by prayer. A mentor of mine has said often that he does not want to go where God hasn’t led him and he does not want to be part of something God is not part of. I agree with him and believe that is wisdom. What would it look like if we responded rather than reacted when someone says something hurtful? Can you imagine how differently we would treat someone if we took sometime to seek the Lord and had a defined purpose, goals, vision, and a plan, all guided by prayer. In these very difficult and trying times I encourage you to respond rather than react. And don’t give up doing good, God promises that we will reap a reward if we persevere.

I have so enjoyed spending time each Wednesday with you all here on our Facebook page. I hope you have been blessed. Keep searching God’s perspective. Allow him to lead and guide you. The best is yet to come. I hope to see you this Sunday at 11am and also next Wednesday at 7pm. God Bless you and have a good night.