When Life Strikes You On The Right Cheek

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. - Jesus  

Hello Everyone.

 It has been a long time since the last alt.noise article was posted, and I want to give my apologies to you, the readers. Life is full of unexpected situations and we can define ourselves by the choices we make in them.

I am fully recovered from the cold that beat me up since the last time I wrote an article. There have also been several other major impacts in my life that has affected my thinking and philosophy on this blog.

Lost Opportunity

Two months ago, I was going through the motions to obtain a youth pastor position at a church when I got a phone call from the senior  pastor. He and a committee member had ventured over to this blog and read through it. They found several articles that they believed were uncharacteristic of an individual they would want to be leading their church. During the conversation, I was notified that they will not be hosting me to come for a visit with them.

It was a blow.

Financial Stress

Now, my family is going through a difficult time. My wife has a comfortable spot with her career, but I am only working 30 hours a week in a low-paying job. We are getting through it, but 2008 has become a hard trial for our family. Through it all, I am trying to keep my face above water and remain faithful in God’s power.

What Is Jesus’ Righteousness

One verse that has stuck with me over the past couple of months is Matthew 6:33.

But seek first His Kingdom and Righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

In context of the chapter, it seems as if Jesus is telling us to not worry about food, work or clothes. He will provide for them as we need it.

This sounds great, but I don’t believe it is the complete interpretation of what he meant.

It is important to understand what Jesus meant when he said His Kingdom and Righteousness. These are the objects of what we are to be seeking.

Many people would quickly assume that Jesus is talking about Heaven and therefore would read, “Seek ye first to get to heaven and all these things would be given to you.” But this is not what Jesus was referring too.

More Than Heaven

This verse sits in the middle of the famous Sermon On The Mount. It is in these verses that he tells us how His Kingdom and Righteousness would be fleshed out. If we do the things that he tells us then God will find the way to provide for our needs.

Read through Matthew 5-7 and listen to how Jesus describes His Righteousness.

The 5 Elements Of Jesus Righteousness

If you read carefully, there are 5 general subjects that he discusses.

• Compassion
• Love
• Faithfulness
• humility
• forgiveness.

These are the elements that Jesus used to define His righteousness and wants us to seek first. He is not telling us to throw away all of our groceries and become hermits, but live with compassion and faithfulness in all of our relationships throughout our day.

A Difficult Transformation

This understanding of the verse is creating a difficult transformation in this time of my life. It is in this hard time when the world keeps shoving my face into the mud that I want to forget my principles of compassion and trip the world’s legs into the mud. But through faith and commitment, God is showing me a new truth about truly having righteousness in my real relationships.

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