Good Thursday morning! Some creatures are described as ungainly. More than likely, I would be one of them. That means that others must be said to be gainly. What exactly does that mean? You can find the definition of shapely and graceful in your dictionary. Therefore I hope that you are particularly gainly today. As I get older, I seem to feel ungainly more often than not. This is probably not a fair estimation, but more of a feeling. The funny thing is that sin doesn't seem to have a particular feeling. If you have sinned, you might feel dirty, or unlovable, or ashamed, or absent from God's presence, but not many would describe the feeling as sinful. I don't get up in the morning and say that I feel quite sinful. Yet, we often use our feelings as a guide to our condition. Does the unbeliever feel sinful or is it more likely that he will feel guilty? Or perhaps he feels that something is missing in his life, such as the presence of God? Do you feel the presence of Jesus? Well, yes! That is a different matter entirely.
Jesus is not a condition, He is our Lord. We feel the presence of The Helper, the Holy Spirit Jesus sent to all of us beginning with the disciples after His resurrection. You and I can point to times in our lives after salvation that we cannot say why we went one way and not the other because the Spirit guided us. We might have no explanation for a bit of divine providence at a difficult spot, except that it was, well, Divine Providence at work in our lives. Someone new comes into our lives and blesses us with her presence. She may not know why she ended up in this place, with these people, or in this job, but we praise God. A man arrives from a far country after an odd chain of seemingly coincidental events. He didn't come seeking salvation, but he knew deep down in his heart that he needed something. He is invited to your church, and praise God, he begins to find the answers he needs. He may not have felt God's presence in those events, but after salvation, he begins to see God's hand at work even in his former sinful life.
When I left high school at 18, and couldn't wait to get off to college in a far town, I would not, even could not have predicted that I would end up 30 years later living in a town a mere 40 miles from where I began that day. All along the way though, God led me from point to point to point, and here I am. God also led me to do this thing, and join that other thing, and learn various things, and guided my life to end up writing these short devotional pieces on weekday mornings. What is God's ultimate plan for me in this life? I don't know, but I sense without knowing that if I stay in obedience, it will be more wonderful than I can imagine. Faith is a strange step to take when we look with our worldly eyes. A leap out of a job or away from a town is frightening because we cannot see the landing. Ask a gymnast to 'stick' the landing when she cannot even see the mat and she might give you that look; the one that asks what planet you currently reside on. However, our faith when we make that leap is not centered on what we can see, but who we believe in. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions... I go to prepare a place for you.
Have a gainly day!Bucky
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