jimtheyouthguy

2nd week into the 2014 Lenten journey and I already blew my Sabbath commitment!  There are just too many crises – even with other folks helping out.  Jail, hospital, Greyhound busses, shut-ins, house guests, broken cars, etc.

And He said to them, “What man shall there be among you, who shall have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will he not take hold of it, and lift it out? “Of how much more value then is a man than a sheep! So then, it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Mat 12:11-12 NAS77)

My sheep are stuck in the house, homeless, in jail or the hospital, but I think those qualify as a pit, too.

And He was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
(Mar 2:27 NAS77)

Then one of the young men answered and said, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is a skillful musician, a mighty man of valor, a warrior, one prudent in speech, and a handsome man; and the LORD is with him.” (1Sa 16:18 NAS77)

Look at all the great things he can do.  What a guy!  He can really rock the house.  He wins all the games.  Everyone always picks him first.  He doesn’t get pushed around.  He’s tough.  When he talks, people listen.  And he’s got a cover shoot for GQ!

Clearly, this is the kind of man you want on your team.  He’s got brains and brawn.  He’s good at everything and the ladies always swoon.  What more can you want?  Without a doubt, this is real leadership potential here.

Oh, and by the way . . .

The LORD is with him.

Just sayin’.

In case that might interest you.

Let’s live lives that shout, “The LORD is with him/her!”  Without regard for what description of me precedes it, what could be better / more important / more valuable / more significant than “the Lord is with me”?

So Samuel did what the LORD said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, “Do you come in peace?” (1Sa 16:4 NAS77)

Samuel is coming!  Samuel is coming!  Quick, make sure everything looks right.  Does anyone know what he wants?  What do you think we did wrong?  Why is he mad at us?  What did we do?  Or did we not do something?  Oh, no.  This is bad.

The elders came “trembling”.  The assumption was, “we did something bad.”  Why else would the great prophet, the judge of Israel come here, to little Bethlehem?

So much of the time we view God like this.  The Cosmic Killjoy.  The Angry Parent.  Grumpy.

Whatever happened to, “if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more so your Father in Heaven”?  He feeds the birds, “Are you not worth much more?”  “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights”.

When I was a kid, dad would say, “Come on.  Get in the car.”  You never knew where you were going.  Maybe it was ice cream!  (Actually, that didn’t happen very much.  Only 3 or 4 times in 10 or 12 years.  But … it was possible!)  Maybe it was a cool place like the hardware store.  Or, the magical land of the municipal waste collection center (city dump).

Once it was the dentist.

But even after the “dentist incident”, it never crossed by mind to ask, “where are we going?”  I was going with dad.  That was enough.  (I miss him.)

Time and time again, in all circumstances, God has been there.  I haven’t always been happy in the situation.  I’ve often wished it could be otherwise, but His Peace, Grace, Comfort and Love are absolute.

God’s not sitting in the Lazy Boy saying, “that’s bad!”  He’s standing next to the door, keys in hand, saying, “Come on!  Get in the car.”