Good morning on this cold day! The forecast high temperature today is, um... 29º. Wow, we haven't enjoyed that kind of cold yet this season. And a balmy 22º tomorrow, it must be December! Whoops, in trying to brush a cat hair or two off my mouse pad, I managed to knock my mouse into next week. Cats should come with warning labels regarding their fur.
Have you ever looked at the other contestants in a race and decided that you could not win before the race even began? As one not blessed with exemplary foot speed in my youth (my phys ed teacher translated this as "slower than molasses in January"), I often failed to give a race my best effort, after all what was the point? The race Paul refers to in Corinthians, and in Pastor Rogers' devotional this morning, is not one that we would want to default in. One good thing, a bit of good news in this if you will - we don't run this race against each other. Comparing our selves or our situation to someone else will either give us pride that we should not have or leave us with a feeling of despair. One can always find a faster runner, a stronger swimmer, a wealthier banker, or a slicker* lawyer in this life. Comparing our own skills to someone else might leave us to default in a race we should be giving our all in running. We must all look to and run toward Jesus, and run with the cheers of the saints in Heaven in your ears!
Looking around your group of fellow Christians, there will be one or more who seem to have it all together. You know the ones: nice house, good jobs, kids excelling in what they do, expensive cars, and they even manage to take a really nice vacation a couple of times each year. To top it all off, these folks are usually very nice folks and might even be good looking too! How can you not hate them? First of all, you and I are not running the race against them. God will not judge us on such things, but on our belief in Jesus. That person with a collection of nice cars? He will look around before the judgement seat of God and will not be able to find his nice car collection. However, if that same person believes in Christ Jesus, he won't even care about those things that he owned here on earth. We won't either. Whether we have much in talents and wealth, or only a little, we live for Christ and in Him is our victory.
Ah, warm coffee is just a bit better on those very cold mornings. I guess tomorrow's java will taste better still! You know a friend pointed out that after 8 weeks I might be feeling better. You know it's time to say it in public... I'm glad that I'm outta there! Now to turn all those worries about tomorrow over to the Lord.
God bless you and have a wonderful Christmas!
Bucky
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