He looked out across the plain toward Sodom and Gomorrah and watched as columns of smoke rose from the cities like smoke from a furnace. [Genesis 19:28 (NLT)]
Let’s pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere. [C.S. Lewis]
I still go online to read the newspaper from what was our hometown for over fifty years. Last week, it was filled with news about the events of Fiesta Days. With its Car Show, Big Wheel Race, Duck Derby, Beach Bash, Street Fair, Music Fest, Art Show, Parade, Fireworks, and Carnival (complete with rides and funnel cakes), the festival is one of summer’s highlights.
However, when air quality monitors reached the “hazardous” and “very hazardous” categories, all outdoor activities in the area were cancelled. Smoke from Ontario’s over 200 wildfires caused the unhealthy conditions and darkened skies. The smoke and haze from these fires spread southeast over 500 miles through Minnesota, Wisconsin, and across northern Illinois. It didn’t stop there; on Friday, it also brought hazardous air and hazy skies to Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, New York City, D.C., and across Maryland and Virginia. By Saturday, over 125 million Americans in 18 states were on air quality alerts.
Fire has a way of causing far-reaching collateral damage and so does sin. The chronology of kings in Israel and Judah is filled with stories of how a father’s sinful example was followed by his son and led the people to sinfully disregard God’s commands. Today, the abusive father is likely to have an abusive son, the adulterous spouse’s divorce hurts the entire extended family, toxic relationships poison everyone near them, and the children of an alcoholic carry emotional baggage that affects not just them but their own children, as well. When the bad stuff hits the fan, it spatters all over innocent people and rarely stops there.
Well, I’m not abusive, adulterous, toxic, or alcoholic so I can’t spread sin, pain, and sorrow, or can I? A few poorly chosen words, a sharp retort, a tidbit of gossip, a rude gesture, a bit of spitefulness, impatience, and rudeness—they all have far-reaching effects. My rudeness to a waiter or salesperson can easily cause them to be irritable with their customers, who then might be short-tempered with the people they meet later. By the end of the day, my unpleasantness may have created a negative chain reaction affecting dozens of people.
Unkindness to one person can end up spoiling other people’s days the way smoke spoiled people’s plans for the Fiesta Days’ carnival! We are connected to the people around us and to those around them. Whether intentional or not, the consequences of our sins don’t remain with us just as that smoke didn’t remain in Thunder Bay!
We talk of “paying it forward” when doing a kindness that will reverberate with more kindnesses. Unfortunately, it appears to work that way with sin (including those “little sins” like anger, rudeness, impatience, hostility, gossip, griping, and spite). Worse, it seems we’re more likely to pay rudeness forward with more of the same than to pay forward our blessings! Any time we fail to live as Jesus did, every time we allow Satan a foothold in our lives, when we forget to respond with love, or are inconsiderate of other people, our ugliness can spread far and wide as did the smoke from the fires in Ontario.
Father, guide our words and actions so that the love of Jesus is clearly seen and felt by all whose lives we touch today. Don’t let us darken someone’s day the way smoke can darken the sky!
The greatest need in the world is the transformation of human nature. We need a new heart that will not have lust and greed and hate in it. We need a heart filled with love and peace and joy, and that is why Jesus came into the world. [Billy Graham]
Several “Nancy” comics written and drawn by Guy Gilchrist have inspired my writing. Curious about the cartoonist, I was not surprised to learn that he is a Christian; that was not always true. 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. 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 always took the right course of action. Although Rogers was publicly vocal about his faith, Gilchrist didn’t know his hero was a Christ follower until many years later.
When written by Guy Gilchrist, “Nancy” used to appear in the comics of our local paper. The slightly chubby, somewhat mischievous, eight-year-old girl with the red skirt and hair bow often prayed. In one comic, Nancy starts with a litany of thanks to God for always being there, showing her the way, filling her heart, and giving her just what she needs before she even knows she wants it. “You are an amazing God!” she offers in praise before closing her prayer with, “Could you throw me a couple answers before my math test tomorrow?”
My summer beach novel began with a man having a heart attack on a commuter train. For the next several pages, I was privy to the thoughts of his fellow passengers who were annoyed by the train’s unscheduled stop for medical aid. Because they’d be delayed, they saw the man’s collapse as a tremendous inconvenience to them. As passengers disembarked to find another way into the city, their thoughts were not of the dying man and his wife but of themselves and how they’d been inconvenienced.
Isaiah heard the Lord ask, “Whom shall I send as a messenger to this people?” and responded, “Here I am. Send me.” When God commissioned him to be His messenger/prophet, Isaiah was acting as a scribe and had a family. Nevertheless, without hesitation, his was an unqualified, “Send me!” Isaiah didn’t know exactly what God wanted him to do or how he was supposed to do it. Even after God told him that the people wouldn’t listen, Isaiah never wavered. Many of Scripture’s heroes, however, weren’t as eager to do God’s work.
“It’s a masterpiece!” I would exclaim when admiring my grands’ latest creations before hanging them on the refrigerator. Truth be told, they only were masterpieces in my grandma eyes. To anyone else, they were just a child’s efforts with crayons, markers, and stickers. A real masterpiece is a work done with exceptional skill—a supreme intellectual or artistic achievement. Even then, the word “masterpiece” usually is limited to an artist’s best work. While my grands needed to hone their skills before creating a true artistic masterpiece, every one of us is a one-of-a-kind masterpiece and an example of God’s best work.
Devotions of the Heart 