Be all Things...

 1 Cor 9:22-23
I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

This Scripture about being all things to all  people used to annoy me. How can we physically, emotionally, and mentally be all things to all people? 

Yesterday, I got it. 

All this time, I had been reading it wrong and thus interpreting it incorrectly. The real message here is not "be what everyone wants you to be," but rather simply try and identify with the person you are communicating with!

Yesterday, it came to light that one of my daughters has been recieivng lots of encouragement and optimism regarding something that is very hard for her. Sounds good doesn't it.

But that is not even close to what she needs. She feels misunderstood and not listened to becasue of how people are brushing over how hard it is for her and only trying to get their way by "forcing" her to do something under the guise of "encouragement."

What she wants is understaniding and empathy. Perhaps if someone - anyone - could identify with her struggles, she might actually be encouraged to persevere.

It's a fine line to walk - "sympathetic" to the point of creating a pity party, or "encouraging" to the point of not listening and identifying.

What Paul is saying in this Scripture is that even though he remians strong in Christ, he tries to identify with the people group, the culture, or the individulal he is speaking with.

And indeed, Jesus was the role model for this method - as He came to earth as a lowly human so we could identify with God Almighty and hopefully listen to His message.
Not only that, but while He was here on earth, He spoke and ate with blatantly sinful people.

Today, I will try to enter into my daughter's world, and identify with her disability, her struggles, her emotions - to walk a mile in her AFO braces so to speak - and perhaps ultimately she will be encouraged.

Imagine a world where we truly tried to identify with the elderly, those with disabilities, the poor, those of different religious convictions, our boss, our employee... Imagine the kind of communication we could have.

 1 Cor 9:19-23 The Message
 Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people:  religious, nonreligious,  meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists,  the defeated, the demoralized — whoever. I didn't take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ — but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I've become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life.  I did all this because of the Message. I didn't just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!