Good Friday morning! The snow looked impressive last night, but it stopped before too long and we only have a couple of inches on the ground. If you were hoping for another day off of school, I don't think you are going to get it today. The Cactus League starts play today down in Arizona. I hope you are ready for some baseball! It certainly looks like baseball weather outside under the snow and above the clouds. Well, actually the grass is brown beneath the snow, so maybe only above the clouds does it look like baseball weather. I guess we can always hope for spring. Kind of explains why they don't have a Buffalo Chip league for spring training. We had a good lesson on hurry last night. Does it strike close to home for you as it did for me? I was once asked why anyone would look at my life and see the value of believing in Jesus. One of the best examples we can be is to live the Christian life. At the time, I was still working for my old employer and attending counseling sessions with a therapist every other week. Diagnosed with PTSD and suffering the pains of several anxiety-induced conditions in my body and mind; why would anyone look at my example and want to follow Christ?
From my example alone, no one would have wanted to join such a thing at that time. Much of what we saw in the lesson: the pursuit of money and job titles, the rush-rush of deadlines and long hours, college and a full-time job with the occasional late or early hours, and the almost manic acquisition of stuff, all cost me in my life example. I experienced all of it. Hurry was my life and I fought it all the way. It seems strange that at the same time I would want all the things I thought I wanted, and yet be fighting it at the same time. Sounds like an unnatural condition, doesn't it? More than two years removed from that time, I am still recovering, but the difference is remarkable. My life before under the cloud of hurry could be likened to the high thin string on a guitar; the one the goes "ting!" when you pluck it and looks thin enough to break easily. Now, I am more like the thicker, stronger strings toward the bottom of the guitar that give a deeper sound when plucked. There are still situations that cause me anxiety, but none quite like my old life produced in me.
We used to call it stress, but our lesson used "hurry" to describe the same conditions in life. The pursuit of money and stuff is the usual fire starter for a life of hurry. Like many other things in life, money and stuff is not evil in and of itself. The problems and the hurry start when you accept either as lord in your life and begin to serve either or both. You will soon find, as many have, that no amount of money is enough and stuff produces only a desire for more stuff. A couple of times I have found myself in an informal gun acquisition contest. Both times I eventually had to ask, "What the heck am I doing?" Eventually, that is after finding myself broke and in possession of more guns than I could possibly use. The suggested word our lesson used for this problem was: de-clutter. Paul said much the same when he advised us to put away those weights slowing us down in our race. Jesus told us that it would be better to cut off a part of our bodies than to go to Hell because of it. All point to the same thing: serving Jesus is far better than serving stuff or money, and we cannot do both. Jesus pointed this out too, when he said that no one can serve both God and mammon.
I like it when our Bible and life group lessons hit right on the mark in my own heart. I love it that God cares enough to teach me. Have a great day in Christ!
Bucky
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