Good morning, Samara.
Things have been pretty hectic around here and I’ve failed to be very regular with these little devotional messages. The last one I posted was on the 16th. And the ones for the days following, including today, are not entirely complete. Oh well. I’ll send them over in that unfinished state and hope you can give them some thought. Even though they are shorter, I think we are grappling with some very important ideas. I hope you will agree.
I was able to deliver that table on Saturday. The lady was happy. I was happy too—not just with how the table turned out, but to have that project that has been hanging over me for two years finally came to a close. Whew! I’ll stick on a couple photos.
Little Kaden and Nicholas were here for the weekend. I was able to use the ATV and pull them around in the snow in a concrete mixing tub. It worked great.
I better get rolling in other directions. Blessings on your day.
Love, Tua.
Here is a very important concept for you to get right before moving very far down the road of life. Perhaps we can call it THE VALUE OF TROUBLE.
Before trying to take that idea apart, let me share my general observation as an old guy concerning how people learn the important lessons of life. I see two basic roadways of learning. The first one to mention is probably the last one in the thinking of most people—it’s WISDOM—the WISDOM that is characterized by passionately seeking and loving your Maker and wanting to please Him above all else. The second one is most common—for lack of a better word, I’m inclined to call it STUPID—which I think is a very appropriate synonym for the word FOLLY (or other words associated with being a FOOL).
I’m also inclined to think that the word “refines” would be a very appropriate replacement for the word “tests.” If it can be understood that you represent great value to your Maker, not in the undeveloped state of your NATURAL SIN NATURE, but in the potential you possess by being BORN AGAIN and thereafter molded and made and REFINED by both TROUBLE and WISDOM so as to conform to His will.
Here’s a good question to ponder: WHAT WOULD I BE LIKE IF I NEVER HAD ANY TROUBLE?—if everything was constantly going my way? I guarantee that you would be off-the-chart ARROGANT/PROUD—which most definitely is NOT a personal quality God can use. In fact, as we highlighted yesterday, God hates that attitude. TROUBLE can serve as God’s most effective REFINING tool. Its proper function should drive us to seek God with the recognition of how absolutely dependent we are upon Him—for everything.
PLEASURE can be one your most valuable friends, or one of your very worst enemies. The point is that PLEASURE is probably the most common driving force of life—why people do the things they do. Who enjoys doing what they don’t enjoy? So if a person enjoys doing drugs enough to do everything they can to get drugs, eating candy enough to steal it, money and stuff enough to rob, kill, and burglarize, it’s to be expected that they will pursue and do those things. Duh! In the same way, if a person loves to learn history, loves to craft wood into beauty and utility, loves to make music with a piano, or loves to learn from God and His Word how to do life and manage it so as to please Him—well, of course, that person will be doing those things.
Think about it, Samara--how often do you notice a person trying to convince others of how important he is by his “airing his own opinions” about things that are not important? If you learn to understand how life works right as well as how it works wrong, you will discover insight into understanding people (including yourself) by discerning what “delights” them. Jesus spoke of a principle of life when He said, “For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). But it’s not just demonstrated by what the “mouth speaks,” but by everything else that person says and does—what “floats his boat.”
If a person does foolish stuff, it can only mean that he thinks foolish stuff, which can only mean that he has opted to be a FOOL. It only makes sense that if a FOOL follows through to practice FOLLY it will have a negative effect on his life—not making his life better, but worse—even ruining his life. If the damage to his life is big and serious and painful enough, he may likely be tempted to get mad at God. Why? Because a FOOL is focused on thinking that “LIFE IS ABOUT ME,” and that God is there for him—kind of like a heavenly genie—not that he is here for God so as to fulfill His plans and purposes. He might complain something like this: “How could a God of love allow something as bad as this to happen to such a wonderful person like me!?!? If that’s the way God does stuff, He can’t be a very good God!”