Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Good morning, dear people.

I came dangerously close to chucking my work load again this morning and running to the mountain. But I didn’t. I’ll go ahead and muscle through as much work as I can. There’s more than ever. In fact, yesterday morning when a truck representing COLTONTEL went by us while on our walk/jog, Becki happened to notice that the vinyl graphics were peeling, indicating that the sign person doing that work used an inferior grade of vinyl. So I just called in at their office yesterday to leave my card and confirm that I can replace their graphics. Already, they want me to apply fresh graphics to two of their trucks.

The other day, I also received a text from a guy in Key West, Florida. I’ve done work for him before. He has more work for me to do on his property along the Molalla River—falling a big cedar and milling it up. I also received a call from…oh, never mind. I better get to work.

Blessings on your day.

Love, Dad/Ray.

My mother had me memorize Proverbs 3:5-6 as a little kid. “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Besides that, she had those verses displayed on our wall in the form of a ceramic plaque. So when I was first learning to read, and attempting to read about everything, I remember reading those words. Beyond that, the message contained in those two verses came to make sense to me over time, and I embraced them as a principle and promise to live by—even though I was less than flawless in their consistent practical application. Hmm—I wonder if I have just made a case for the value of Christian parents teaching their young children to memorize Biblical principles, as well as displaying them in the home.

It’s intriguing to play a little of the “WHAT IF” game. For example, I can muse over what if I had not misunderstood a notice I received while working for the Union Pacific Railroad—interpreting that notice as being laid off, when I was really expected to abandon my present assignment at Centralia and report at the main yard in Seattle? I’m now inclined to view that as a blessed misunderstanding because it played out to prompt me to enroll two weeks late into the Winter quarter of 1964 at Northwest College. If I had not enrolled at that point, simply motivated to do at least something educationally rather than nothing, now that I had a little money to do so, I probably never would have attended that college. And the painful truth is that I most likely would never have met Becki. Oh my—this “WHAT IF” can turn a little dismal. I guess I’d better not lean to my own understanding.

We could get tangled up in one of those endless circular discussions surrounding the matter of how divine guidance works—whether it’s a matter of our following a kind of predetermined script, or if the LORD has ways of influencing circumstances along the way in response to our choices. I definitely lean toward the latter—a slight form of leaning to my own understanding—which helps me surrender to His understanding at ordering my circumstances as I order my choices. Within this view, it’s like God is constantly giving us a multiple choice questionnaire. At every intersection of our lives, we are called to make a choice between A, B, or C—maybe all the way down to Z. If I choose G, that opens up a resulting set of circumstances and options. If I choose K, there’s another set. And on it goes to create an infinitely unique course for every unique person. In response to the mystery, let’s allow Paul to sum it all up for us: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Rom 11:33, KJV).

Now add this overview: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17, KJV)—and not by a complete understanding thereof.

So—my advice—as you process that point of today’s multiple choice questionnaire where it asks, “Are you committed to passionately loving and serving God today?”—please choose “YES”—and let Him work out the resulting circumstances from there.