May the mumbling commence!
Time. We each have twenty-four hours in each
day. And those days add into weeks and
years. The average lifespan is seventy
or eighty years long. It is a finite
amount of time. May we use it
wisely. May we use it for the Lord and
for the people we love in our lives.
Read from Psalm Ninety:
Seventy years are given to us!
Some may even reach eighty.
But even the best of these years are filled with pain and trouble;
soon they disappear, and we are gone.
Who
can comprehend the power of your anger?
Your
wrath is as awesome as the fear you deserve.
Teach us to make the most of our time,
so that we may grow in wisdom. (Verses 10-12)
Yes, even our glory days aren’t as
glorious as we remember them. The “good
ole days” had their share of pain and trouble.
How do we make the most out of a situation like that?
The psalmist talks of the powerful
anger and wrath of the Lord. I must
admit – I am NOT comfortable with that image of God. I gravitate to the God of compassion, mercy
and unending love.
But we must remember that the
Hebrew way of thinking is that everything comes from the Lord – good and
bad. I like to think that the bad comes
from Satan and his emissaries of darkness.
I like to think my bad attitudes and thoughts and choices have more to
do with evil in the world.
But the past is in the past. Nothing can change it. Today is important. How will I take advantage of this day? How will I make the most of my time from now
on? That, in a nutshell, is true
wisdom. Where do we go for that wisdom? Read from Psalm Ninety-one (one of my
favorites because it reminds me of my next-door neighbor, who prayed me to
salvation… it was one of her favorite psalms).
If you make the Lord your refuge,
if you make the Most High your shelter,
no
evil will conquer you;
no
plague will come near your dwelling.
For
he orders his angels to protect you
wherever
you go.
They
will hold you with their hands
to
keep you from striking your foot on a stone. (Verses 9-12)
We go to God Most High in our times
of pain and trouble. God is wisdom,
refuge and shelter. Though Satan tried
to pluck the end of this passage out of context, we can claim the protection of
the Lord if we run to God for refuge and shelter. That is wise to do. Then we can learn God’s Way and use our extremely
limited time well.
It’s about walking the walking and
talking the talk of the Christian life.
Read from Titus chapter two:
In the same way, encourage the young men to live wisely in all
they do. And
you yourself must be an example to them by doing good deeds of every kind. Let
everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching. Let your teaching be so correct that it can't
be criticized. Then those who want to argue will be ashamed because they won't
have anything bad to say about us. (Verses 6-8)
Follow Jesus in your attitudes,
thoughts, words and deeds. Jesus set the
bar extremely high, but if we attempt to follow his Way, the world will notice
and the critics will be left with very little to criticize.
Enough mumbling for now…
Peace Out
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