The Plumbline

Convenient vs. inconvenient.  We are all faced with the challenges each and everyday which make us choose between what is convenient vs. what is a "little bit" to a "whole lot" inconvenient for us.  When a friend asks for a ride home from work, if it is on the way home, it is convenient, so you probably don't balk.  When they ask for a ride way out of your way, you might just be thinking up the excuses right now for why you could not do it today!  We often look for excuses when something is a little bit harder than what we expected, or what we think to be "convenient" for the moment.  If conversation comes hard for you, when another wants to sit with you and begin to explore your day, including your "feelings" of the day, you might just see this as a threat and come up with those excuses for why "now" is not the right time!  If it is "easy", we seldom resist - but add any element of difficulty to a situation and we will s...

"Keep on" - two words with much meaning.  To "keep on" one must have begun the journey. There must have been a clear starting point - a launching pad of sorts from which one begins to take the steps in some particular venture.  For believers, this is the moment they say "yes" to Jesus.  For non-believers, this might be the moment they begin to feel the "niggling" of need in their life which causes they to be curious to find what is missing in their lives.  Either way, there is this starting point.  To "keep on" also implies there is a tendency in us to be slowed down, or even stopped completely along this journey.  The words are instruction, but they are also encouragement.  There are times when "keep on" will take on the meaning of a prod to get us into movement again, while at others they are simply words to encourage us to not give up.  As we consider this instruction today, let us not forget the tendency we have to become...

As I was driving home yesterday, I went by a local church I often pass - one with a sign out front which they change periodically to have some new message to give you some fodder for thought.  They didn't let me down!  The sign read:  "God wants to restore your heart, but he needs all the pieces."  I got to thinking about all the "pieces" of our heart we somehow manage to give away, deny, and the like.  It made me think how difficult this job of restoring a "clean" heart within us really is for God - not beyond him, by any means - but if we hold back the pieces, or don't even realize we haven't given him all of them, it is easy to see how we might "deal" with issues for quite a while in our lives.  As I began to dwell on this a little further, the easiest thing to do is to take the attention off oneself and place it squarely on another - so I began to think about my kids and some of the things they have dealt with through the years, ...