Our dogs each got a rawhide bone from Santa. Jimmy got his bone first, and he was in dog heaven . . . until we gave Russell a bone, too. Then Jimmy couldn't enjoy his bone anymore. The fun was ruined. It's easy to be like Jimmy, right? The house or job or degree or wife looks pretty good until someone turns up with what looks like a better one. And that's a real problem, because it makes life an endless roller coaster ride. One minute you're on top of the world, and the next you're on the bottom again. All it takes is a little comparing. Maybe that's why God says no comparisons allowed. Wouldn't it be a relief to take that seriously? I wonder what we'd do with all the time and energy we'd save by not always scrambling to measure up.
this one small day
Most of us spend a lot of time worrying about tomorrow -- what if my illness gets worse or what if I lose my job or how will I handle retirement or what if that relationship keeps deteriorating. They're the kind of thoughts that exhaust you because they sap your hope and feed your fears. So today, whenever I'm tempted to entertain fearful and fruitless future thoughts, I'm going to say instead, "Lord, help me to live well this one small day."
"What God may hereafter require of you, you must not give yourself the least trouble about. Everything He gives you to do, you must do as well as ever you can, and that is the best possible preparation for what He may want you to do next. If people would but do what they have to do, they would always find themselves ready for what came next." George MacDonald (b. 1824)
robin
People say that funerals teach you how to live. They're right. It happened yesterday at Robin's. They played a recording of Robin as pianist with a symphany orchestra. It seems she'd won all sorts of awards, and she could have been a concert pianist. Later in the service, somebody said that Robin was always the same down-to-earth person, whether she was sitting at her own kitchen table or being interviewed on the Today Show or Good Morning America. Robin and I were friends for years, and she never mentioned the Today Show or Good Morning America or playing the piano. She spent a lot more time doing things for other people than talking about herself. Maybe that's why the church was so full.
the main thing
Life is fast. Days zip by. Too much to do in too little time. Grownups. Kids. Everybody. Sure, we’re productive. We get a lot done. But we pay too dearly. Our hearts can’t breathe. Our imaginations can’t wander about. And then we forget why we’re here.
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” Stephen Covey
who am I?
Who am I? They often tell me
I stepped from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country-house.
Who am I? They often tell me
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me
I bore the days of misfortune
Equally, smilingly, proudly,
Like one accustomed to win.
Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I myself know of myself?
Restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though bands were
Compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectation of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others
And before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Tegel prison, 1943
the big picture
We need the big picture. Without it, we lose heart. Naomi did. She moved to a foreign country with her husband and her two sons, because they couldn’t make ends meet at home. And then her husband died. Then one son. Then the other son. She was left alone with her daughter-in-law, and she lost heart. Despair crept in. Life was over. The family was dead. Hope was gone. But she couldn’t see the big picture. She couldn’t see the day she would hold her grandson. She couldn’t see the day that her grandson would hold his grandson, who would be King David. And she couldn't see that, generations later, from her family -- King David's family --would come the very Son of God. The darkest part of the night is often just before dawn.
“The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. . . . The Almighty has afflicted me.” Ruth 1:20-21.
“God, who . . . calls into being that which does not exist.” Rom. 4:17.