Guidelines For Living Devotional

When Janette Aragon first answered the phone and a caller asked, "Can you tell me my future?" she thought that someone was playing a prank on her.  After all, she was the secretary of Missionary Enterprises, a Christian organization, and she had no experience with crystal balls or tarot cards.  But the man was dead serious.  "How did you get our phone number?" asked Janette.

When Jo Shetler went to work among the Balangao people, a tribal group in Northern Luzon in the Philippines, she quickly learned that the way she did things was much different from the way they were done in the tribe.  She knew, of course, there were cultural differences.  But what she didn't understand was how great they were.  She soon learned that though the Balangaos didn't have the advancements of culture and civilization that she had grown up with, they had far, far surpassed her culture when it came to interpersonal relationships, especially getting along with difficult people.

One of the most important things you can ever learn about God is that God is God!  That's not very profound, you may think, but it is, really!  Here's why!  Not knowing God, we assume that He is kind of a glorified human, and therefore try to understand Him just as you would another human being.  Now, to say that God is God isn't to say for a moment that He is not a person with intelligence, will and emotions!  He is that plus an infinite amount more.  He is also One who can be known, which means that God is not a Force, The Prime Mover of the Universe or an Abstract Power out there—wherever that may be. 

"The trouble with being over the hill," quipped one pundit, "is that I can't remember ever being at the top."  A lot of folks can relate to that.  When that nebulous divider of life arrives‑‑about age 40‑‑they panic, thinking that from then on, they are on the downhill run. 

"Middle age" has been described as that period of life that you never want to enter and you never want to leave.

Some have called it the "acceptable sin of the saints" since almost everyone does it, and few really label it what it is--sin.  And what is this wrong which we label "acceptable"?  It's worry!  And we ignore and justify doing it.  "I just can't help it--it's my nature!"  Besides, we justify, there is a great deal of difference between anxiety--justified concern--and real worry.  Perhaps!  But, I for one, am never sure when I've crossed that line and have allowed my sleep to be taken from me as I wrestle with issues when I'm praying about it, but worrying about it at the same time.

A neighborhood bully about ten years of age was invited to go to a local Sunday School, and the boy went.  The teacher recognized the lad and thought to herself, "I better really pour it on because I may never get the chance again!"  So she talked about the devil and pictured him as an evil, ugly creature replete with pitchfork and tail spitting fire, ready to devour bad boys who were bullies thinking that she just might scare the kid into the kingdom.  The visiting lad squirmed and looked at his feet as she really poured it on.  Then after about 20 minutes, she got his attention asking, "Now, young man, what do you think of the devil?  Aren't you a little afraid of him?"  "Yeah, I guess I am afraid of that big old devil," he drawled, "but if you bring a devil around just my size, I'm sure I could whip him."

An acquaintance tells about a businessman who called a friend and got the run-around.  "May I please speak with Mr. Jones?"  "Just a minute, sir, while I transfer you to his department."  Second try: "May I speak with Mr. Jones?"  "I'm sorry, I'll have to connect you with his division."  After two minutes on hold, a voice comes on the phone and asks, "Who did you want to talk with?"  "Mr. Jones, please."  "Just a minute..." 

How much is enough?  To be very candid with you, that is a question that I have struggled with personally for several years.  Oh, it isn't that I have so much or think I need so much that I have drawn a line and said to myself, "When I get there, I'll give the rest away."  The issue with me involves a lifestyle.  It is part of the fabric of my faith forced by my coming to grips with the needs of the world.

Have you ever heard it said that three moves are as good as a fire?  What that means is that every time you move, you throw out things, good things too, which you would like to keep but there is no room to keep them.  Why didn't you toss it out a long time ago?  You kept it because you were sure it was too good to throw away, so you put it in the closet or stored it in your garage.  Eventually, you have to reckon with it.  If you want to label the disorder, call it, "CLUTTER!"  It isn't only our closets which eventually suffer from clutter.  Clutter is a disease of the brain, even of the heart, as well as the closet.