The Plumbline

Second fiddle - I always wondered where that expression originated. I figured it was the person who played fiddle (or a stringed instrument of some type), next to the one who was either the most experienced, or who knew the song the best, with the fastest and most skilled fingering of all the players. Did you know the one who plays second fiddle actually 'supplements' the gifted fiddle-playing of the one in the first position? In today's vernacular, that simple term has come to mean someone in a position of being subordinate or 'less than' the one in the lead. I don't think that was what God had in mind for us - he wants our life to 'supplement the playing' of those he places in our lives - not always seeking to take the lead position, but being very content 'adding to' the music another produces from their lives. Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who l...

Can you imagine what would have happened if the Israelites had marched around Jericho six days and then stopped marching? You see, the directive was to walk six, then on the seventh they were to walk around seven times, stop and shout as the ram's horns were being sounded. The walls were high, the enemy on the other side of the walls seemed impossible for them to take. They had the vision of what they wanted, but all that stood in their way were obstacles and that is what they focused on so strongly - those walls. Sometimes we are stuck staring at the obstacles and we forget about the vision of what is just beyond those walls. We stop short of the goal because we only see the barrier in our way. Jericho was shut up tight as a drum because of the People of Israel: no one going in, no one coming out. God spoke to Joshua, “Look sharp now. I’ve already given Jericho to you, along with its king and its elite forces. Here’s what you are to do: March around the city, all your soldiers. Ci...