Friday, November 4, 2016
I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise
your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes,
I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. Let
each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your
power. I will meditate on your
majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. Psalm 145:1-5(NLT)
Somewhere in
the wee hours of the night – perhaps during the rain delay just before the
Chicago Cubs broke their 108 year non-championship streak with a World Series
win over the Cleveland Indians (who, by-the-way, were only slightly less effective
than the Cubs, having not won a World Series since 1948, and now own the distinction
of being the longest losers on planet Major League baseball) – well, it was
somewhere in the middle of all that baseball and nail-biting, big-time
staying-up too late, I figured-out I have spent enough time staying up too late
and nail-biting over a baseball game. I
went to bed and waited for the morning to find out who won. Congratulations Cubbies, and hang-in there Cleveland;
you played wonderfully, and if the Cubs are any indication, miracles still
happen; maybe next year!
A second epiphany
happened in the middle of the night concerning the staying-up too late, and all
that nail-biting I’ve been doing over next Tuesday’s election.
Hi; I’m
Russell, and I’m an election-aholic!
What dawned
on me is that I’m done. No, I
haven’t voted yet, I’m something of a traditionalist; it won’t feel right unless
I get to the polling place and wait 3 months in line…so I’ll be voting on
November 8th.
What I’m done
with is placing so much attention on staying up late and nail-biting over the
latest trend in the polls. I’m done
worrying about what I can’t control, and definitely wouldn’t want to control
anyway. I’m done with anxiety and election
strategy!
Now, I’ve
lived long enough, and sinned often enough to know that when you give something
up, if you don’t replace it with something else, something else will rush-in to
take the place of the something you gave up.
It’s that way in nature and with human beings…there’s no such thing as a
vacuum
for very long. It’s like that vacuum-packed
jar of pickles, or can of coffee you open…that sssshhhhhhhh sound
you hear isn’t air escaping, it’s the outside air rushing-in to
fill the emptiness. If you give-up
smoking today, you’re liable to take up eating tomorrow. Give up drinking and you will find gambling
makes a nice substitute!
So what’s an
ex-nail-biting, stayer-up-too-late, election poll-worrying junkie supposed to
do?
Well, he’s
supposed to do exactly what he should have been doing all along – meditate, as
the Psalmist suggested, on the glorious splendor and wonderful miracles of God;
to let THAT replace the nonsense of a lesser-things vacuum
between your ears, and fill your mouth with praise for, and exaltation of, the
one true living God. When you begin to
do THAT
as your main diet of what you do with your day, there will be so much holy
air rush in to replace what you gave up, there won’t be time to
slip back into lesser things! You’ll be
as Charles Wesley expressed it, lost in wonder, love and praise[ii]
I don’t doubt
I’ll watch another World Series game, and I’m not saying I won’t notice who won
the election, but I’ve given up the all-consuming task of being God about it. Besides, there are enough people on the
ballot who already want that job.
For You Today
If your team won (or lost) the
World Series, or if your candidate wins (or loses) the election, how much
difference is it going to make when you place that fact alongside the majesty
and exaltation of Almighty God?
NOTES
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