My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. [1 John 3:18-20 MSG)]
It was well past midnight when I finally rolled into bed. Barely able to keep my eyes open, I reached over to read my evening’s meditation. How we choose to spend our time was the topic and the author wrote of the futility of building sandcastles that would be washed away in the tide. “It all may seem worthwhile, but in the end it’s worthless,” were his words. Since I’d just spent countless hours working on line to create a photo book for my mother-in-law, I stopped reading and moaned, “Oh Lord, was this project a sandcastle? Is the book not worthy of the hours I spent creating it?” I’d neglected my writing to finish this project and now the words I was reading filled me with self-reproach. Had I wasted precious time? I knew the book wouldn’t disappear with the tide but would it be appreciated? Perhaps it would be read and forgotten or maybe never even seen. After all, my mother-in-law is 100 years old and her clock is winding down. There was always the possibility that, by the time was book was printed and shipped, it would arrive after she departed! I started thinking of all the other more important or worthy things I could have done with those many hours.
Fortunately, I kept reading. The author then wrote of spending hours building real sandcastles with his children. Those sandcastles, even though they’d be gone in the morning, were more worthwhile than the sandcastles he built in other areas of his busy life. The time he spent at the beach, fully engaged with his children in their construction efforts, was time wisely used.
I remembered the old story of a little boy who gave his Peace Corps teacher a beautiful seashell. Since their village was 30 miles from the nearest seashore, she knew the boy had walked several days to bring her that shell. “You shouldn’t have traveled so far just to find a gift for me,” she told him. “The long walk is part of the gift!” was his response. Perhaps I didn’t need to spend as much time editing the pictures, designing layouts, placing the right embellishments on each page, or finding the perfect quotes, but they were all part of the long walk included in the gift.
Dark thoughts often come late at night, especially when we’re exhausted. I’d forgotten that we must always let love guide us. Granted, we should spend time furthering God’s kingdom but there’s more than one way to do that! Sometimes we further it by taking a long walk for someone. How we spend our time indicates what we treasure. Whether we’re building sandcastles with the kids or making photo books for the family, delivering meals to the ill or baking cookies for Sunday school, patching drywall in a Habitat house or constructing Lincoln log cabins with the grands, our time is a gift of love and that gift will last for eternity.
If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give. [George MacDonald]
Several “Nancy” comics have inspired my writing and I was curious about the strip’s artist/writer, Guy Gilchrist. From the tenor of his work, I was not surprised to learn that he is a Christian but that was not always so. As a boy, he was poor, lonely, abused and searching for someone and something in which to believe. Missing a dad, he found a father figure in an unlikely place—television—and in a remarkable person—a radio, television and movie star by the name of Roy Rogers. Since there was no difference between Rogers’ screen persona and the man himself, Gilchrist chose an excellent role model in this man of integrity. Kind and honest, Rogers was a devout Christian who stood for decency, truth and justice. Gilchrist, however, didn’t know about his hero’s faith until many years later. When the young cartoonist was unsure how to behave, he’d look to the singing cowboy and ask himself, “What would Roy do?” He knew his cowboy hero would always take the right course of action. Of course, the boy didn’t know that the Christian entertainer had his own model for behavior: Jesus. While Gilchrist was asking himself what Roy would do, the star was probably asking himself, “What would Jesus do?”
If I told you that 88% of Americans own four or five of these, you’d probably think of televisions until I told you that less than a fifth of Americans actually use them regularly. It’s the Bible—almost all of us have more than one and yet few of us ever open it more than a few times a year.
Also, the Spirit helps us with our weakness. We do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself speaks to God for us, even begs God for us with deep feelings that words cannot explain. God can see what is in people’s hearts. And he knows what is in the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit speaks to God for his people in the way God wants. [Romans 8:26-27 (NCV)]
I watched the snowy egret at the beach and couldn’t quite decide if he was an exceptionally smart bird, just plain lazy, or a little of both. Egrets are excellent fishermen and will wade in the shallows stirring up the water with their feet to flush out delicacies like fish, frogs, and crayfish. Other times, they exhibit great patience as they stand nearly immobile for several minutes just waiting for their prey to come near enough for them to strike and catch dinner.
Devotions of the Heart 