Interrupting Opportunities

Returning from an afternoon walk, we stopped long enough to put the baby backpack into the trunk of the car. As we did, a neighbor quickly approached us, asking if we might have time to go pick up his granddaughter from her job at McDonald's. Interruption. Sitting in the playroom, enjoying time with baby Jesse, the doorball rang. Two neighborhood boys were at the door wondering if we might be able to take them to football practice. Interruption. After 21 years in this neighborhood, we have finally gained the glorious opportunities that come through interruptions. Thank You, Lord; thank You! "Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people..." (Galatians 6:10)

Numbering Days

Strolling a baby through a retirement community is a lesson in the brevity of life. How quickly the soft silky skin grows wrinkled and leathery. How fast the hair of red, brown, black, and blonde turns to shades of gray or falls out. Ears that hear so keenly and eyes that notice the smallest particle of dirt on the floor lose their ability. Legs just learning to walk will someday find it difficult again. "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:10, 12)

Ordained Wakefulness

"Every sleepless hour is ordained for me by God." Written by Charles Spurgeon, gleaned from God's Word. Barking dogs. A crying baby. Intermittent snoring. A nagging headache. Cracks of thunder. An unsettled stomach. Sporadic coughing. An aging body. These are some of the things that keep me awake at night, but God has ordained my wakefulness. I can meet this time with contentment instead of anger or frustration. I can use this time to fix my open eyes on Jesus. "On my bed I remember You; I think of You through the watches of the night." (Psalm 63:6)

Root Canal

Sitting in the dentist's chair for two hours, I sought ways to redeem the time. I prayed for my dentist, his assistant, and everyone in his office. I prayed for a missionary in Afghanistan who is trying to start a small dental business as a ministry because the people there have very little dental care available to them. I reviewed Scripture verses, and as I did, I sensed the Holy Spirit impressing upon me one in particular: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:16) My body is in fact wasting away, but the eternal glory that awaits is far greater than all the suffering in the here and now.

Gaining Perspective

Don Richardson arrived in Netherlands New Guinea with his wife and infant son in the early 1960's. They were missionaries to an unreached people group known as the Sawi, cannibals and headhunters. This tribe had never seen a white person. They had never seen boats or airplanes or lanterns. Growing up in America during the same time, I had seen all these things and so much more. But I didn't know much about the world beyond my backyard. I didn't know or think of unreached people groups. I didn't know of child slavery or witchcraft or torture. Reading the biographies of missionaries helps me to gain perspective on the eternal, to get outside of America and know that our mission as Christians still looms large ahead of us. Let's not forget. "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19)

Great Cloud

Sitting on the floor in my prayer closet, I am surrounded by books written over the centuries by men and women who love God. When I am discouraged I will gaze at the titles, remembering the words I have read and the lessons I have learned through their faithfulness. My Bible, too, is filled with stories of those who have gone before me, those who have followed in the way of the cross. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Too Legalistic

It was 1991. Our first Bible study. There was one woman in the group who was different from the rest of us. She had a lot of things she didn't do. Our thoughts? Stifling. Too legalistic. But, we were wrong. The word legalism is not in the Bible, but it is synonymous with "works of law." One author defines it as "a self-reliant effort to demonstrate virtue to man and God." In other words, it is believing we can get to heaven by our works. Legalism is not the good works that a Christian does as he relies on the Holy Spirit. So, it is not so much "what we do, but the spirit in which we do it that makes the difference." We can not be quick to assume that a person's actions are legalistic without knowing their heart. In the case of our friend, she was pursuing holiness, and we have found in her someone to imitate.