Shade Tree Wisdom 11/18/11

          Many of you mentioned blessings and events.  The day set me to remembering what life has taught me. No, I won’t share the whole load, but just some things that stick out.

          Duane Brown is a left tackle on the line that protects the quarterback on the Texan football team.  He said, “It was a rude awakening. You work so hard to get here, and then you find the hard work is just beginning.”

          Life is like that.  You work hard to achieve a goal, graduation for instance, and get a job, and then you keep on working to improve your work ethic and grow in knowledge and understanding of what that work requires, and how to do it better.

          The ministry is that.  You finally graduate and are called to a church.  Then the real work begins, daily reading and study and prayer, weekly intense study for a sermon, Bible classes, and confirmation classes. And the sick and the shut-in calls, and the plate gets kind of full.

          But such effort finds its daily blessings also.
The poet said it.
               “The heights of great men reached, and kept,
                Were not attained by sudden flight,
                But they, while their companions slept,
                Were toiling upward in the night.”

          Another lesson; learn to listen, really listen.  One sage said, “I learn much when I listen, nothing when I talk.”

          God’s complaint to Israel, ”My people would not listen to Me; Israel would not submit to me, so I gave them over to their own stubborn heart to follow their own devices.” Psalm 81, 11.12.  The lesson, learn to ask questions and then really hear what the reply is.  For often just the right question will open the door to what the problem really is.

          So finally, 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land”.  And when the Lord hears, forgives, and heals, we are blessed.

GPD 11/18/11