“Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.”

There will be lots of post Thanksgiving Monday talk about overdoing it at the Thanksgiving table.  There might also be discussions of overdoing the shopping on Black Friday, over-watching football on TV, or even overdoing the attempts at Thanksgiving backyard football games.  Whatever it was, if it was overdone then that means there was (or still is) recovery time necessary.  Have you ever spent a weekend sleeping (recovering) from a brutal week of work?  If you have, then you know that the cost of overdoing just about anything can be one which keeps us from growing or reaching our full strength, creativity or performance.  If we learn to not overdo things in our lives, we could find that the newfound balance allows for us to be productive because we learn to pace and expend our energy where and when it is needed, not being caught flat-footed because we are just overdone.

We are challenged to not be ones who overdo the things of this world.  A few weeks ago I was reminded of this as my wife and I were at a film festival in Napa Valley.  As we were visiting one of the vendor exhibits where there were offerings from different wine vintners, I was stopped by a young couple who recognized me from a video series that I had done at my church.  In that moment, I was more than thankful I was not overdoing it.  The same can be said whenever we are participating in any activity where there are others considering whether or not we are being considerate in how we are living our lives for Him.

Reference: Philippians 4:5 (New Living Translation)