Skip to main content

This is the Way

             Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaish 30:21)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

          Another section of my homework is to examine life experiences have shaped me into who I am. In this case, I’m fortunate because part of another challenge given me by someone else led me to produce a list I laughingly call a “Boring Tale of a Failed and Incidental Life.” It begins with going to college, so I should add the earlier experiences, but it’s three pages long and doesn’t include my early life. It is three pages long, so I won’t bore you.

          I gave my list the name I did because very few of the items on it are even remotely exciting. But boredom is part of the message. When I was in Toastmasters, I gave a speech comparing two collections with life. The first collection was swords. The second was letter openers. I ended up with lots more letter openers than swords. They cost less, are easier to store, and – “how often do you have an opportunity to use a sword?”  It’s the smaller events that tend to form our lives. The big events are flashy and can certainly influence one greatly but it’s the smaller, less expensive events that I think tend to shape our lives more. It’s hard to miss the big events and their influence, but the influence of small events may sneak up on us.

          I’ll give you just one example of one in my life. When I worked in the Courthouse, the county executive asked me to put together an “emergency preparedness handbook” for county departments. Since then, I have had recurring bouts of “I’m not prepared for emergencies.” Usually, I have puttered around, found out how much being prepared cost, and given up. Unsurprisingly, in 2020, I found myself “unprepared” again. This time I started with “I can’t afford…” but followed up with, “But I can learn.” And that was the beginning of many changes and positive challenges in my life.

What events have influenced your life? How have they influenced it?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more