Good Friday morning! What a great day to wake up to the sun shining in my windows! I needed to start with some JJ Heller tunes this morning to get going. I got to bed late last night, and then was awokeneded rather rudely by a loud crack of thunder at some point. I think it was something like 0130 or so when the thunderstorm came through, but that may be a guess at best. Long story short, as they say now, I might need a little nappy-nap today.
Often in this devotional I will say something like "We all have felt..." but today, I don't know that all of us have felt this. So I will use myself as the example. I have felt the urge to get something without earning it. I'm speaking of awards or accolades, not the outright theft of something on a store shelf. However, getting an award or accolade I haven't earned would in fact be stealing it. I felt this most in my younger years when I wasn't happy or satisfied with who I was. Many of us may feel this urge, but every once in a while you hear about someone actually taking that step.
Today I read an article on MSNBC about a man who apparently lied about service in the Marines in order to get into the Army reserve as an NCO. From his picture in Marine dress blues, it looks like he awarded himself just about every possible decoration without getting into the obvious ones that cause a lot of publicity. Some folks just don't want to earn it.
We easily see how this man dishonored the uniform he put on and the service he gained entry into, but what isn't so obvious is how he also dishonored the many honest and unemployed people in our nation. Think of those you know who lost their jobs in the recession, with the exception of the one you know who heard the call to take up writing that is, and ask why they should be unemployed through no fault of their own while a man without integrity has both an Army reserve job and a regular job. He doesn't have a wife anymore, she found him out and had the marriage annulled on the grounds of fraud. Of course he also won't have his freedom much longer as he has been found to be a fraud.
Of course there is another question to ask: why am I writing about this again already? I suppose because it happened again already. In every period of war, and probably most times of peace, there have been those found out who claimed to be war heroes, but who in fact never served. When we feel the call to serve in our nation's armed forces and in the army of Christ, we get really ticked off when someone claims service without serving. Now do we begin to see why Jesus called out those who will make this claim before the judgement seat of Christ? Jesus made them a promise too: get away from me, I never knew you!
Don't be a false believer. Serve where you are called to serve. Go to work and do a good job for your employer; do a good job writing every day (that's me!); go see those you are called to see; do a good job for Jesus in all you do! It's not all work either: take time this weekend to serve your family by taking them out to play. Take time to take care of yourself too; you are a precious creation of God. Just don't claim to be someone you are not; our integrity is a valuable and rare jewel these days.
God bless,
Bucky
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