A blue collar God …

We’ve all seen it.

At the point where traffic slows to a crawl, just beyond the orange caution cones, are three or four stern looking men leaning on an official vehicle with orange flashing lights, trying to appear important as they gaze at a lone worker in a hole digging away, doing all the work himself.

Why does it seem there are so many supervisors for the one guy who is really doing the work and getting things done?

That construction scenario is a snapshot of the two kinds of people we find in the world. There are people who talk a great deal, and attempt to appear important, but in the long run don’t really contribute much to the world or their relationships. Then there are the hard-working blue collar guys who strain their backs, coat their clothes in sweat, and get done what needs to be done.

I like to refer to these two types of people as INSPECTORS and INVESTORS …

Inspectors are those people who don’t really make a positive contribution in their relationships because they have no intention of doing the real work loving others requires. Instead, they’re inspectors. They critique the lives of others, identify flaws, criticize productivity, demand something different or something more, but they don’t make any consequential or substantial investment in most of the people they interact with. They are not there to work, they’re just there to “inspect.”

Then there are the investors. These are people who are constantly pouring their time, talent, and resources into other people. They labor over helping others, they sweat over bearing other people’s burdens, and they produce great products of love in their relationships because they live their lives investing who they are and what they have into others.

These two types of people reflect one of two allegiances we as human beings can have. In Revelation 12:10 Satan is referred to as the “accuser of our brothers and sisters.” That’s because he tries to usurp the “inspector” role in the lives of Christians. He stands before God complaining about the sub-par lives we live, and making accusations against believers. Then there is the great investor, Jesus Christ, whose entire earthly experience was one of pouring into us the love, grace, and mercy of God to the point of offering Himself as a sacrifice on a cruel cross as God’s great investment in us.

Who are you more like?

Do you spend more time inspecting, judging, measuring, and commenting on the lives of others without investing in them? When was the last time you got down into a friend’s hole and helped them dig? Do you routinely find the flaws in the lives of others and enjoy pointing them out?

Or do you invest with abandon in the lives of others to their benefit? Do you sweat to build relationships that are great products of love? How far are you willing to sacrifice for others?

Scotty