Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Quick to the Smart; Slow in the Understanding - October 20, 2010

Good Wednesday morning! Off to Bayard this morning for a quick pick-up in the pickup so to speak. I did see the temp hit 32° this morning when I got up. Autumn is slowly coming in; I can't recall a more gentle and gradual arrival than this year's. This morning I started off with a prayer for the Lord to use me as He wills. I immediately thought of the trouble that I would be in if I said that in the world on a regular basis. Can you imagine walking around a public place like a major airport and telling strangers to "use me as you will"? Of course, any of us would be in a whole lot of trouble in a short time by doing something foolish like that. On the other hand, most of the answers would go something along the lines of, "What?! Scram weird one!" We just don't do that to anyone but God the Father in our prayers. Who do we trust completely, if not yet perfectly, with our lives? God!

Will the woman at that well near Sychar find someone to trust in this morning? Let us read on.

"But sir, you don't have a rope or a bucket," she said, "and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?" John 4:11

Oho, once again we run into a very smart individual who just doesn't get what Jesus is saying. We have all the answers in our worldly intellect...until we run into Jesus and find out that we really don't have the important answers to death, life, and life eternal. Nicodemus tried to tell Jesus what and who Jesus was; now this woman is pointing out everything that Jesus is lacking. I would like to think that I would have simply listened, perhaps saying something like, "Yes, Lord, I'm listening." But the truth is, I would have done much the same thing. We have a great temptation to think how smart we are when we can jump on an obvious shortcoming or seeming error in another person's statement. However, while people did try that with Jesus, not one was ever correct in doing so. And by babbling when they should have been learning, they might have missed a chance to learn the very secrets we all need to know.

As Paul reminds us at the end of Romans, these secrets have all been revealed in Christ. However smart the other persons were at the time, Jesus patiently explained the Good News to Nicodemus and the disciples that we know of. Will he explain patiently to this woman? Probably so, for our Lord is very patient with all of us, just as he proved time after time in the Bible. We can expect some interesting and wonderful answers in the verses to come.

Have a wondermous day in Christ!

Bucky

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