The Plumbline

If I had not found joy in your teachings, my suffering would have destroyed me. I will never forget your commands, because through them you gave me new life. I am yours, so save me! I have done my best to know your instructions. The wicked tried to destroy me, but your rules made me wise. Everything has its limits, except your commands. (Psalm 119:92-96) The remedy for life's challenges is to lean hard into God's promises and commands - to find direction, solace, and strength within the instruction laid out there. Find joy in God's teachings and you will find the "remedy" which sustains you even when there seems to be no deliverance or end. It is more than memory of scripture (although there is merit to hiding God's Word within our minds). It is more than frequent time in the Word (although we cannot learn from God's Word without the sacrifice of time). It is more than a Bible-reading plan for the year (although it might focus us a little). It is the ...

Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom. Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. (Psalm 90:13, 14) The brevity of life isn't really felt in our youth - it is felt more as the decades pass, the work winds down, and the days seem to pass faster than we ever thought they could. A day speeds by, soon it is a month gone, then we ring in a whole new year. Is it possible that time really does fly? As youngsters, days just drug on, making us think we'd never get to do all those 'important things' we were dreaming of doing. Then we got a bit older, and our days were filled to overflowing with all manner of work, business, and things that 'just had to be done'.  As our careers wound down, hobbies became our main focus, and now the things we thought so important to accomplish in our youth somehow don't matter all that much. What matters now? The hugs we shared along the way, the mo...