Blog post November 10, 2026

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. Romans 12:17

The NLT says "never payback evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can do to live in peace with everyone."

My two favorite words in the Bible are "but God". When circumstances in life seem overwhelming we say "but God", meaning God can take the seemingly impossible, and do the impossible.

But sometimes I want to use those two words in a different context. Today I wanna say "but God" don't you know how frustrating that person is to me? Don't you know how unreasonable they're being? Can't you see the problems their intentionally creating? "But God" do I really have to apply these verses?

I regularly send money via Western Union to Haiti for the work that we are supporting there. Sometime back the man behind the WU counter refused to give the recipient the money because the name didn't match his ID exactly. In Haiti is very common to use your last name fist, so the name is the same it just doesn't match the order on your ID. So I changed the order so that my recipient could get his money. Well there's a new boss in the Western Union office in Haiti, and yesterday when I sent money he refused to give the money because the name this person goes by didn't match the Western Union name that I sent. So for two days we have been arguing with this man who refuses to give us the much needed money to buy food and necessities. So today I called the Western Union office in Colorado and changed it back to the name we used to use...

The aggravation is that Haitians already have so many struggles in their life they don't need some power hungry man to cause more struggles, just to show that he has the power to do so. You just wanna reach across the counter and grab him and shake him... And then you read these verses, and you say yes "But God"....

Have you ever found yourself wanting to say "but God"? What we are called to be is not always easy and doesn't come natural to our "old self". So we pray and we leave it all with the Lord and do our best to put on our "game face". We press on trying to operate with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. To be the best ambassadors for Christ that we can be.

Heavenly Father I am so glad that Your mercies are new every morning and that You are all the things You ask us to be. Help us to be good ambassadors for You. To see things with an eternal perspective. To love even those who may be acting as a burr under our saddle. Help us to be all things to all people that we may indeed win some to Christ. I pray in Jesus name.