Guidelines For Living Devotional

"Does God really lack a sense of humor?"  That question was the lead sentence in an article that crossed my desk.  I read the article and got to thinking about it.  John Dart, writing for the L. A. Times, asked some provocative questions and started me thinking.  Does God have a sense of humor?

"Dear Dr. Sala," writes a friend of Guidelines.  "Your messages…are uplifting.  I oftentimes tell myself, what is life for?  Why should one person be more hurt than others?  Why must one's life be lived until you succumb to death?  Why can't one evaporate, vanish on one's command, if life is untenable?  Can you give some answers to these questions?"

"Dear Dr. Sala," writes a listener.  "First and foremost, I'm mad.  Really mad at my life.  It's the pits.  All of my life, God has been unfair to me.  He put me in a dysfunctional family, made me endure things you wouldn't imagine possible and made me ugly.  I feel so ugly because people respond to me in a way that I don't like."  The last sentence reads, "I wrote this as a last resort."  And it is signed, "Whipsawed by Confusion."

What do you do when your head and your heart don't agree, besides hurting a lot?  A young woman who is a Christian, unhappily married and wanting to find the right person and marry, meets a man, usually married and a few years older than she, and he begins to give her attention.  He makes her feel important and tells her how turned on he is by her, that she is exactly what he has been looking for all his life. 

A couple wanting to spend a quiet lunch together, away from the spying eyes of the office help, picked up a pizza and headed for a nearby park.  When the box was opened, however, they found not only the pizza but the funds from the restaurant's previous day's business which had been hidden in the box for safekeeping.  Fearing that they might be accused of theft, they immediately returned the money; whereupon, the owner of the shop, so impressed at their honesty, said, "Let me call the newspaper and have them do a story.  Just think how impressive it is‑‑you find the money and return it.  I can't believe it."  Immediately the couple was horror‑stricken.  "Oh, please don't do that," they pleaded, "we're not married to each other and we wouldn't want our picture in the papers!"

"Our 747 was traveling between the Philippines and Hawaii," wrote John N. Powell, "and we had just passed the point of no return.  It was a cold, stormy night and the plane reciprocated with creaks and groans as it lurched up and down in the wintry storm.  Half the passengers were asleep and the other half, like me, were watching the movie with one eye half open.

Long before the age of computers, e. e. cummings, the English author and philosopher, asked the question, "With all our knowledge, what has happened to wisdom?"   Another English writer, Samuel Johnson, described the lack of wisdom in his generation as a "mental disease."  Centuries before, Solomon decried the lack of wisdom and then wrote, "A wise man will hear and increase in learning.  And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel" (Proverbs 1:5-6, NASB).  Solomon then pictured wisdom as a person who walks through the streets crying out at the foolishness of those who refuse counsel and correction.

"My husband doesn't love me!  The only time he says he loves me is when he wants something."  I have heard those words more than once, and I usually prod a bit deeper, asking questions like, "Is he faithful to you?  Does he support you and the family?  Does he share in the responsibilities of the house?  Take care of the kids?  Bathe and change the baby?  Carry out the trash?  Ever give you a compliment?  Take you out for dinner?"

A certain woman, bitten by a dog suspected of having rabies, was immediately rushed to a hospital where she was treated and left in an adjacent room until it could be determined whether or not the dog had rabies.   As you probably know, treatment for rabies is painful and expensive.  If it can be determined that an animal is not infected, it saves a great deal of trouble and anxiety.  An intern on duty explained the seriousness of the situation to the woman, and then was called to other duties.

Dear Dr. Sala, can you explain why God let my dog get hit by a car and die?" There are some questions that even theologians struggle to answer. So should a parent tell a youngster than his dog is now with Jesus in heaven?   Or should he or she tell him that when animals die, that's it? Or what should a parent say to assuage the loss of a child's pet? Many adults do not really understand the bond that exists between a child and his pet. When I was a youngster I had a dog that was my constant companion, and when my dog finally died, I was a young man in college, but I wept when I got news that Coalie was no longer with us.