Let It Go

 

Some days I feel like the Born Loser in the funnypapers.  Let me explain.  Last Wednesday morning I went into Panera Bread to get my dear wife a Cinnamon Crunch bagel, sliced, toasted, and with 2 pats of butter.  There was an older couple in front of me, so I waited behind them … at a respectable distance (social distancing).  They got their order and left, but the cashier had to get some bags in the back, so I waited where I was.  And as I did, a girl came in and walked right up to the counter … in front of me!  I expected her to look around and ask me, “Have you ordered yet?” but she didn’t.  She obviously didn’t know ‘line etiquette’.  I let it go and just waited.  Then another girl came in (and waited behind me).  Still no cashier to be seen.  Then the girl behind me stepped over to a self-service kiosk and typed in her order.  I hadn’t noticed the kiosk, but she had.  Her gain; my loss.  The cashier returned, the two girls got their orders, and finally, it was my turn.  I had to ‘let it go’ or I would have become bitter.  James reminds us not to think too highly of ourselves.  He said in James 2:1, “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.”  Each of us are important to the Lord, and each of us should be respected by the other.  It was good practice for me to ‘let it go’.  Hey, look for an opportunity for you to ‘let it go’ today.  You’ll feel better about yourself if you do.  And you just might make the world a better place.

Scars

 

Bob B. had a chair that he was repairing.  One leg had been shattered past the point of repairing.  So he asked me to make another leg on my wood lathe.  The leg appeared to be poplar, one of the softest of the hardwoods.  I had a pallet that I had torn apart that had runners that was poplar.  But it had nail holes in it with rust stains that went deep into the wood.  The chair leg was too long to avoid the nail holes.  I was able to cut below the nail holes on one side of the leg, but the other side was just too deep.  Bob would have to turn the new leg with nail holes towards the inside where they wouldn’t be as noticeable.  What a life-lesson!  Sin leaves scars in our lives.  Some are superficial, but others are deep and have deep stains.  Jesus will forgive and clean us up, but many of the scars from sin remain.  The old apostle John said in I John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”  Jesus will forgive, but we must bear the scars as a reminder of former mistakes.  But, praise the Lord, we are forgiven!

Unseen

 

When I was just a teenager in 1963, an evangelist came to our church who was a chalk artist.  He had an easel set up with lights and music … old-school multimedia.  He started the music and began to draw.  He laid the stick of chalk on its side and splashed a broad area of one color on the lower half of the paper.  Then another area of color in the upper left and a third color in the upper right.  As I looked, I had no idea of what the drawing would become, but he did.  This artist knew from the beginning exactly what he was doing.  In his mind, he already saw what the drawing would be.  He knew, but none of us knew.  And as time went on and more lines were drawn, the final picture took shape.  He had a few special colors that were added that didn’t seem to make any sense.  He drew lines and curves that were meaningless.  But after he was finished, he stepped back and switched on a florescent light that was a UV black light and the UVR chalk seemed to leap off the paper!  There was a big moon up in the sky that had been invisible.  The mountains and trees had extra depth and detail that I had not been able to see.  What a great presentation!  Hey, the good Lord is working in just such ways in my life.  Now that I look back upon my life, I can see how God led me, by a crooked path, to where I am now.  But when I was younger, I could not see what God was doing nor why He was taking me through such difficult ways.  David said in Psalm 27:11, “Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path …”  God had Samuel to anoint David to be the next king of Israel, but David did not reach the throne for almost fifteen years.  God was leading AND God was preparing David.  Hey, do you seem to be left behind?  Do you feel abandoned by the Lord?  Take heart!  God is still in heaven and is still leading you behind the scenes.  David went on to say in Psalm 27:14, “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”  Let me repeat what David said, because it’s good advice for us, “Wait on the Lord.”