The Plumbline

Wow! I saw this post today and just wanted to share it: I asked God...'Why are you taking me through troubled waters?'...He replied, 'Because your enemies can't swim.' ( Source ) Think on that one a bit and it might just blow your mind. We are going through troubled waters - not on accident - but on purpose. Not to be consumed by our enemies - to drown them! We might think the 'high waters' and 'rough seas' are put there to toss us about and capsize us, swallowing us up in the depth of their expanse, but God has a different purpose for those rough waters.  Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?”  Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea,...

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin reminds us, "The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others." He also reminds us that growing old is like being punished for some kind of crime we definitely did not commit! While he is best known as a philosopher of an era gone by, he obviously had a pretty good sense of humor, as well! I don't know about you, but 'giving myself' to others has become easier as I have grown older. I think we get a little less 'self-important' as we age. We find the value in others and we see how much they are a tremendous blessing in our lives. It isn't that we need to 'put ourselves out there' any longer - we are content to be a blessing in the lives of another. Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill s...

But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I’m completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won’t be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God. (Acts 20:24) I have days when life seems less like a 'picnic' and more like a 'disaster' - how about you? If we go through life expecting only the 'picnic days', we will find ourselves living in a dreamland and not in reality. Life comes complete with the ups and downs - we have little to no control over most of them. What we do control is our response to those 'non-picnic days'. When we choose to sail through what others would treat as something to avoid at all co...