Thursday, February
23, 2017
So Moses told the people of Israel what the Lord had said, but
they refused to listen anymore. They had become too discouraged by the
brutality of their slavery. Exodus 6:9(NLT)
A “lagging sense of
discouragement” seems to characterize what I see in the faces of a lot of
people these days. You can only guess at
the source of such malaise. Some would
say it is a political season
hangover. Those who populate
the far left and far right are treading water, with the left scrambling to come
up with reasons why
their candidate faded into the oblivion of an unfriendly electoral congress. On the far right are those trying not to
gloat in ungracious victory, and at the same time suffering embarrassment over
the mixed messages that come out of the new administration. Staying focused and level these days is like
trying to nail Jell-O to the living room wall.
It’s
hard to stay positive when everything has changed, changes daily, and it seems
like no one really knows what is going to happen. It’s as unsettling and discouraging as what
the golfers experienced that day. It was
the town’s Methodist preacher playing with the rich businessman whose spotty
reputation and foul-language belied the fact that he hadn’t graced the inside
of a church for many a year.
The
businessman was losing his temper over his terrible golf skills. Every time he would swing at the ball and
miss it by a mile, he’d roar: I
missed; I missed; I can’t believe I missed! Four times on the first hole, six times on
the second… I missed; I missed; I can’t believe I missed!
By
the time the golfers reached hole #11 the preacher had heard about the
businessman’s missing, missing, missing about 40
times. But it all came unglued on the
twelfth hole when the businessman missed again…badly; he turned the preacher’s
ears blue with a string of expletives that would have made a longshoreman
blush. And with that there was a
lightning bolt from heaven that cracked open the cloudless sky and split the Methodist
preacher clean in two!
The
businessman stood there, staring in disbelief at the charred remains. Then, slowly, a deep voice from above: I missed; I missed; I can’t believe I
missed!
There are times in life when
all you can do is shake your head and agree with Scripture that the Lord sends
his rain on the just and the unjust – and only He knows why![ii]
For You Today
If
you’re feeling a little discouraged…or a lot discouraged…remember the settled
fact that circumstances may be around you, but they cannot define you if you’re
a child of God.
NOTES
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