No doubt about it! God is good--Psalm 73:1-5, The Message
good to good people, good to the good-hearted.
But I nearly missed it,
missed seeing his goodnesss.
I was looking the other way,
looking up to the people
At the top,
envying the wicked who have it made,
Who have nothing to worry about,
not a care in the whole wide world.
What a reminder, early this morning, as I sat on the too-small front porch of a house I want to sell as I looked out at two vans that just aren't quite as cool as the Land Rovers I see every day and listened to my too-close neighbors begin their days while their dogs bark incessantly.
Maybe it's a first-world problem, or maybe it's an American one, but I'm certain it's not just mine. Isn't it easy to envy other people who seemingly have it made? Isn't it easy to be discontent with the car I drive or the house I call home or the neighborhood where I live or the gifts and talents I have or everything else about my life that just isn't good enough? Isn't it far too easy to feel like other people "have it made, piling up riches" while we are "stupid to play by the rules" (vs. 12 in The Message)?
I have often said that the greatest disservice my mother ever did me was to teach me that I wasn't any more important than anyone else. It makes me wait in line longer than other people do, it makes me give money to church and to other people who need it, it makes me spend some of my free time working for others. It forces me to be a little bit less selfish.
Yet, I still forget. I still look at other people and all that they have and wonder if--how--I can get my hands on some of it.
And then I'm reminded. Whether it's by a blown call in a football game, giving a touchdown to someone who must know he didn't score one, or an artist selflessly offering to create something to benefit other people, or a few verses from a Psalm that I've read many times before. I'm reminded.
"No doubt about it! God is good . . . But I nearly missed it."
God, today, please open my eyes. Let me focus on the higher purpose. Let my focus be You and Your goodness.
You're all I want in heaven!Psalm 73:25-28, The Message
You're all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
Deserters, they'll never be heard from again.
But I'm in the very presence of God--
oh, how refreshing it is!
I've made Lord God my home.
God, I'm telling the world what you do!
2 comments:
amen. Thanks for the reminder...
Sometimes I feel like my bones are brittle and my skin is sagging, both literally and figuratively. Thank you for reminding me that God is eternal, and that he is kind to the kind-hearted, and that he loves us.
Post a Comment