I don't want to!

Don't you hate it when your kids find a dead mouse in your backyard and there's nobody there to handle the situation except you?

Happened to me just yesterday.

You debate leaving the thing there until your husband gets home from work, but the possibility that the dog will get to it and chew on it is too disgusting to risk.

Too bad the 9 year old isn't home, maybe you could talk him into dealing with it, but nope, just the 3 and 4 year old children squealing about the dead mouse one thought was a rabbit and the other a possum.  

You mull over the different ways you could pick up the mouse and dispose of it.

But really you are just wishing there was somebody else here to do it!

Why?

Because it's gross and unpleasant and not at all on the to-do list you created for this day.

Largely, plainly, you just don't want to!

Or is all that just me?

Do normal people promptly put on gloves, pick up the dead mouse, throw it away and go on with their lives?

Maybe.  But I submit that if it's not the dead mouse that gets to you then there's something else, probably many somethings.  Things, issues, situations you encounter in your life that you must deal with when you just don't want to!  Messy things, gross things, hard things.

Really, as far as things-I-don't-want-to-do go, the dead mouse is pretty minor.  I scooped it up with the pooper scooper, the one with the really long handle, dumped it in the outside trash can, and went inside and washed my hands several times even though my hands truly got nowhere near the carcass.  Over and done with in about a minute.

But, listen to what the Bible tells us to do:

"But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you," Matt 5:44
 
"Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you." Matthew 5:42

"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2

You know what all three of those things have in common?

(Besides being in the Bible)

They are not fun.  Not easy to do.  And most always fall into the category that my natural, selfish self looks at and says, "I don't want to!"

So, why?  Why do things we don't want to do?

Because we are Christians.  Christ followers!

"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them." 2 Cor 5:15

Because He died for me.  Because He lives.  Lord help me to no longer live for myself!

Find more Thankful Thursday here.