We've all heard the phrase "the devil's in the details." That was yesterday for me.
We are renovating and updating our kitchen, and we're at the point where it's all about the details: the touch-up, the organization, the decoration, the hardware. We spent hours online sifting through choices to arrive at half a dozen that fit our budget and appealed to both my husband and me. Then we went shopping for the finalists and came home to try them out on our newly painted, Shaker-style cabinets, both with and without back plates. In the end we chose what we both expected to be the least likely candidate. Then there were the floating shelves. We'd ordered four, but they wouldn't all fit where we meant them to go and hold everything we wanted to get off the counters. After much wrangling and figuring, we wound up with three shelves in the kitchen and another in the foyer. My mother's oversized gold ladle (which is a wall-hanging, not a kitchen utensil) needed to be repainted a copper color, but the first color we chose didn't provide enough contrast. Back to the home improvement store for the umpteenth time... You get the picture. Because of my husband's work schedule and the contractors AND the fact that we have a winter storm headed our way, it all needed to be settled yesterday--or it would have to wait weeks when we've already been at this for weeks. There's that devil.
In the midst of the frustration and the chaos, a grandgirlie sent a Bible verse to my iPhone. They do that on occasion, God bless them. Luke 12:6-7. Five sparrows sold for two pennies but not one forgotten by God. The hairs of my head numbered by Him...
Perhaps the devil is in the details, but so is God. I took a deep breath and recalled a lesson I had already learned but of which I obviously needed to be reminded.
I never have to fear the outcome. I just have to depend on Him for everything. Every. Little. Thing. No problem is too large for our God. And no detail is too small.
Family by design.
We live in a fallen world of imperfect people who create imperfect families. Yet, God designed the family to illustrate for us our relationship to Him. He knew we couldn't achieve perfection in any of our endeavors without His intervention, but does that mean we give up? According to the world, we should just cut out "toxic" people from our lives and abandon anyone who "doesn't make us happy." I agree that dangerously abusive people need to be removed from our lives as expediently as possible. That doesn't mean we should cut ties with family members with whom we simply disagree or that we shouldn't be willing to welcome back those who walked away over some disagreement.
That's exactly what God does with us. We may decide at different times in our lives that He is not worth the trouble of getting to know, that He doesn't understand us or even truly know or care that we exist. We may even decide that He does not exist. That doesn't mean we can't come home again. He's always there, ready, willing, and able to re-establish communication, to take us under His protective wing and grow the ties that bind us.
A very real movement is afoot to destroy the family. Some believe it is a danger to personal freedom, new ways of thought, and re-educating the masses to necessary revolutionary ideas, one of which is removing the idea of God from the human psyche. Only by removing God as the originator of true liberty and the arbiter of good and evil can human power brokers fully usurp those positions for themselves--and make no mistake; that is the goal. They do this under the guise of equality, but the truth is that, like all humans, they will show favoritism to those who agree most with them, and their judgment will be just as flawed as every one else's.
Only God's design has a chance of working, and it works best when we follow His teaching. When we move away from that, we inevitably mess up. It's just human nature. Thank God for His design!
Daniel or Moses?
Both were mighty men of God. Moses was born into slavery in Egypt then set aside in the palace of princess for God's purposes. Guilty of murder, he abandoned his people until God spoke to him through a burning bush and then only reluctantly returned to lead them out of enslavement. Through him, God revealed Himself to His chosen people and, ultimately, the world. Yet, Moses acted impulsively and let his temper get the better of him, so much so that he and the entire generation of Hebrews who came out of Egypt were denied entry into the Promised Land of Israel. That privilege went to their children.
Daniel, on the other hand, was a highborn boy caught up in the Babylonian exile generations later. A hostage in the house of the king, he did what the nation at large had not done and clung fast to the teachings handed down from Moses. As a result, God blessed him mightily even in exile and, eventually, through him and the example he set, the entire nation of Israel. Despite trials and traps, before he died, Daniel was literally running the empire that conquered his own nation and paved the way for their return to their homeland.
So which is best? Charismatic Moses with all his imperfections and personality flaws, who performed great wonders and made great mistakes but ultimately fulfilled his purpose? Or genius Daniel, whose mild personality, quiet strength, and brave, determined adherence to his faith brought great blessing?
I suspect most prefer Daniel. Even the Hebrews he led out of slavery often castigated and railed against Moses, while only his competitors plotted against Daniel. The truth is, however, that neither is best.
Each was exactly right for the purpose God set before him, and our preferences don't have anything to do with it. God has a plan and a purpose for each of us. He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, and He can help us with all of them and use all of them.
You can pick your friends by personality, but remember that God has different standards for those He chooses to fulfill His purposes. For what purpose has He chosen YOU?
The Meaning of Life.
It's not about ME.
That's why I can't earn my way to Heaven by living a good life and doing good things. Christ Jesus, in grace and mercy, earned my way to Heaven through His sacrifice on the cross, paying my sin debt and that of all humanity. Living a good life and doing good things are a reflection of my faith in and obedience to Him.
That's the meaning of life, and without a relationship with God in Christ Jesus, life has no meaning.
If we are soulless beings whose existence ends when our bodies expire, then our attempts to live well-ordered, accomplished lives--let alone selfless lives dedicated to the service of others--are pointless, because even the most stellar advances are only temporary and the lives they touch, even improve, are only temporary. (And many "advancements" we believe to be improvements actually turn out to be as harmful as they are helpful, if not more so.)
Dedicating our lives to our own enjoyment and well-being is nothing but selfishness, and that never ends well. Dedicating our lives to others without the indwelling and guidance of God's love in the person of the Holy Spirit is nothing but hubris and serves a shallow, temporary good at best and often does as much or more harm.
The Meaning of LIfe?
It's not about me. It's about my relationship with HIM and how that affects all that I do and am.
Load more posts
Crop your personal picture
