Sometimes it seems we so willingly settle for less, as if we’re not worth it!…even when L’Oréal tells us all that we are! Sometimes I think we are more likely to take our clues about our self worth from corporate advertising messages than from our faith and our God who has made us, each one, wonder-full!

We are not to settle for less, we are to settle-in to the way things are and be in the moment and there we will find more possibility for life than we would normally imagine. We are to settle for more!

Settle for more…but don’t be fussy. Sometimes I wonder if we are fussier than God! Sometimes it takes an awful lot to please us or satisfy us. Sometimes nothing and no one measures up. Fussier than God.

So often we confuse needs with wants, healings with cures, the power of acceptance with the power of denial. Settling for more is not about getting your way or avoiding the truth. It’s about seeing your way through the moment at hand and using it to build yourself up rather than tear yourself down….even the hard moments in which you are feeling abandoned or held captive, ostracized or dis-eased.

God uses all of life for good for those who believe. And it happens in the moment! So settle-in and settle for more.

Those exiles to whom the prophet Jeremiah speaks …well, what they probably wanted to hear in that moment is that their almighty and powerful God was going to rub out the enemy so they can return to the land they have been promised. Don’t you? Don’t you want God to rub out those that wrong you…oh, you wouldn’t say it that way but most of us want to get even, come out on top, have our just rewards. We are more likely to get even, to get mad than not.

But through the prophet they are told "bloom where you are planted", don’t hold back, live your life in the moment and make it the best life you can. In fact, they are to help their captors prosper. At first that sounds bizarre. Jeremiah isn’t saying be a part of the corruption and what is wrong. He is saying be a part of what works and get some positive momentum going for yourself and the nation. What you do is contagious!

We are all connected….what any one of us does has a ripple affect on all of us. And no one of us can build ourselves up in isolation and think the castle walls will hold forever…there are no ivory towers that can withstand the test of time or money.

Grandmother use to say it this way: You catch more bees with honey than with vinegar. When you see the positive in yourself, and live from there, you respond rather than react to the world around you. If you see the positive in someone else, they meet you there.

Jeremiah is not saying be a doormat to the corruption of the world. He is saying live your life the way you desire to live it….and pray for those around you. This is contagious!

Psychologists tell us that repeatedly doing an action will eventually normalize it. You can change your responses to life by changing your responses to life! Practice. Practice. Practice. Right here! Start right here at Tippe.

When someone bumps into your feelings, when you’re mad that a mistake was made, when you’re feeling someone isn’t pulling their weight….practice! practice! practice! Instead of assuming the worst of that person, assume the best. Wonder what is going on in them that they would be doing their life this way? Then go to your deeper, better, God-centered self and reflect on how you want to be you…don’t get hooked by the negative initial energy, take a moment and respond with positive energy and you will be helping not only yourself and the other, but this church prosper! And it is contagious! And it is safe to try it out here.

So, when I come in to Fellowship Hall and I see a plant knocked over and a mess, I have a choice about the assumptions I will make about how that happened and time to figure out how to respond in ways that align with how I want to be me and how I want people to respond to me when I am the one who knocks over the plant and leaves it. And everyone of us has done that at some point and walked away without cleaning it up!

When someone makes a mistake or doesn’t follow up on something or do things in the usual ways we agree to get things done, I have a choice of what to say to that….I can get even, I can blame or shame, or….I can simply ask the person to share more of what they were thinking/what was pressing against them, and work together to figure it out or start out again.

More.
The 10 lepers were cured. 9 go off to the temple excited to get the priest’s good housekeeping stamp of approval to reenter society. I can’t imagine their relief and joy and excitement about their restored life. But they go so quickly, they miss the depth of the moment…they move on too quickly to really let that cure become a healing that touches more than their skin, but their hearts….a heart healing that bleeds into all of life. They, after the initial excitement falls away, having only their cures and not having their hearts and souls healed, may their find resentment and anger and expect God to now get even for them. They may find themselves settling for less.

The one who experiences healing connects his cure with his God and takes that moment of deep appreciation to come before Jesus and give thanks…worshipping. And he is the one who is truly changed and set free….not needing any stamp of approval, free to live fully with or without it. He settles for more. And in doing so, he changes everything for himself and those around him. He prospers and so does his nation.

There is a change reaction.

Everything we do builds us up or tears us down.Everything we do says what we believe and how we imagine God to be….if you get mad easily, feel you don’t have to hold your tongue, judge others quickly, pout….and you say you believe in God…then you are saying these things are OK....and our God is judging and vengeful and has favorites.

And you are wrong about God…the God revealed in the living stories of Jesus!

All of us do these things from time to time. And most of us don’t connect how we act to what we believe because we rush from the moment too quickly, like the 9, and forget our interconnectedness, like the exiles, and are satisfied too easily with a cure, forsaking the healing that is offered which prospers all involved. We settle for less rather than more.

Jesus didn’t really need the 10 to thank him. He knew who he was and did not define himself on the basis of other people’s approval. A good lesson for us. No. He wanted them to be thankful, not for his sake, but for their own.

How many lepers do you know? Who is cast out of your family, your church, your workplace, our neighborhoods? Who do you cast out?

How are you being held captive, feeling yourself to be exiled from the place or people you love?

When you are with those exiled, when a leper approaches you, when someone really makes you mad and you see red! …..try to find their humanity. Try to imagine the burden they are carrying around….all the unresolved sadness, anger, grief, regret that is pushing them to act the way they are acting. Be in that moment long enough to think before you react. Maintain your faith and keep your integrity.

Living with faithful integrity makes it much easier to bloom wherever you are planted and with whomever you are planted. Integrity comes through confidence in the goodness of God and our thankfulness to have the moment to embrace what we believe…and act out of it rather than just act out!

Every rotten thing, unfair thing, upsetting thing that is done to you is an opportunity to change yourself and the world. Pray for the doer, pray for yourself, give thanks to God for the chance to be healed in the moment, and see how we are all connected.

"We may not be able to choose our wounds in life, but we do have the power to choose what those wounds are going to mean." (Jan Goldstein in Sacred Wounds, Harper Collins, 2003)

Settle for more.