Good wet Thursday morning! I heard the rain arrive last night as I lay resting my tired bones in my bed. I have come to the conclusion that retaining wall blocks start getting heavy at about the third time a person loads or unloads them. A good workout to be sure, but as the old saying goes: If you don't do it every day, in aches and pains you will pay! Actually, I may have just made that one up, but you are welcome to use it. I see that a feast is going on outside. The birds are feasting on all the worms that are out in the wet street this morning. Someone always likes the rainy weather. The rain also keeps the cat from sitting out back staring up at the new robin chicks. Imagine the stress that must cause the little cheepers so early in life. As they grow, I'm thinking the racket from out back may just increase to the point that it bothers me. Of course, I'll worry about today's worries for today.
As a writer, I get a kick out of a misused word when someone writes a letter to the editor of a newspaper and we all get to see the mistake. It takes a certain amount of courage, or outrage, to put your writing out in the public eye. Make a mistake in your letter and everyone gets to read it and laugh... at the mistake, not you, though the writer might feel that the laughter is directed on a personal level. Anyone of us could make a mistake like that and we tend to fear putting ourselves up for public ridicule. Depend on your spell checker program too much and you might just lay an egg in public.
Last week in our life group we talked about things that keep Christians and non-Christians from speaking up for their beliefs. One of the reasons is that very thing: mistakes are often ridiculed and re-ridiculed until the writer or speaker wishes that he or she had just kept quiet. The world is a rough and tough place. Public ridicule is so effective that at times it was used as an official punishment back in the day. If you are one of those called to speak or write in public for Jesus, you are going to need some help from our Lord. We like to grab one of Paul's verses for the tough times: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There is a context to this verse that we should pay attention to, but the important part is not the "I can" as much as it is the part about who is doing the strengthening. We should always take comfort in the fact that Jesus is with us in all things and strengthens us.
Seldom would one of us need more strengthening from Jesus than if we get up in public and really blow it. The larger the audience, the more we would need Jesus and his mighty power. But even on a personal level, say you only blew it in conversation with one other person, we need the strength of Christ to apologize and seek forgiveness. Words cannot be taken back once written or spoken, but we can seek healing in our relationships through Christ. Jesus is very good at healing relationships. After all, the first thing he must do when saving us is to heal our relationship with God the Father.
Praise God for the healing of the Son!
Bucky
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