A Simple Life

 

Thursday, May 13, 2021

Declare me innocent, O LORD, for I have acted with integrity; I have trusted in the LORD without wavering.  Put me on trial, LORD, and cross-examine me.  Test my motives and my heart.  For I am always aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth.  I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites.  I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked.  I wash my hands to declare my innocence.  I come to your altar, O LORD, singing a song of thanksgiving and telling of all your wonders.  I love your sanctuary, LORD, the place where your glorious presence dwells.  Don’t let me suffer the fate of sinners.  Don’t condemn me along with murderers.  Their hands are dirty with evil schemes, and they constantly take bribes.  But I am not like that; I live with integrity.  So redeem me and show me mercy.  Now I stand on solid ground, and I will publicly praise the LORD.  Psalms 26:1 - 12
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you.  Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”    Matthew 11:28 - 30

I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a “simple life”.  Jesus and the Psalmist show us a simple approach to life, but that never means it’s going to be a simple thing to live that way!

The Psalmist had lived a life of integrity; this means choosing right over wrong, no matter the cost, no matter who complains.   

How can THAT ever be uncomplicated?

You promise to love, honor and cherish, but your husband wants you to rob banks with him, and can’t believe you’re not going to cooperate.

Your father said he will always be there; then he died.  How can he do that to you?

The boss wants you to “look the other way” on this one.  You know it will mean drawing unemployment if you don’t; but there’s that integrity thing again!  And what will the wife say?

Methodists (practicing ones) live by three rules:

·        Do no harm

·        Do good

·        Stay in love with God

The Psalmist may have been a Methodist (or at least Wesley got his ideas from Psalm 26); he lived with integrity (doing no harm) and loved the sanctuary of God, which assumes that he stayed in love with God and looked out for his neighbor.

Jesus knew that was the right way to live; he also knew there are times when evil will swamp a person who tries to live that way.

 

For You Today

Feel swamped?  Alligators snapping at your heels?

Don’t pull the wagon all alone.  There’s rest in the Savior’s yoke!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day! 

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[1] Genesis 32:22-28

[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation^©

Today’s devotion was first published October 21, 2013

This Holy Week - Part 4

[1]

Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, March 29, 2018

“These are your instructions for eating this meal:  Be fully dressed, wear your sandals, and carry your walking stick in your hand.  Eat the meal with urgency, for this is the Lord’s Passover.  On that night I will pass through the land of Egypt and strike down every firstborn son and firstborn male animal in the land of Egypt.  I will execute judgment against all the gods of Egypt, for I am the Lord!  But the blood on your doorposts will serve as a sign, marking the houses where you are staying.  When I see the blood, I will pass over you.  This plague of death will not touch you when I strike the land of Egypt.  “This is a day to remember. Each year, from generation to generation, you must celebrate it as a special festival to the Lord.  This is a law for all time.  Exodus 12:11-14^(NLT)

Friday evening Jewish families will be gathered all over the world to celebrate Passover, the moment God’s very special chosen nation was born.  They ate the bread of haste, and marched out of Egypt on their journey to the Land of Canaan.  Now that sounds simple and jubilant, doesn’t it?  It was jubilant; how could the end of 400 years of slavery be other?  But simple is another story.  Passover is a beginning, not a conclusion.

That rest of the story includes many battles, wrong turns in the wilderness, judgment and conquest.  Winning the right to occupy the Promised Land was a snap compared to walking the straight and narrow of keeping it!  The whole record of Israel’s history is spiked like the stock market…up one day, and crashing the next.  Every time you blinked someone was doing evil in the sight of the Lord, getting punished, and the next day the cycle would start all over again.  Rags-to-Riches, Hero-to-Zero, and back.

If that story strikes a familiar chord with our life experience, it’s because Israel’s story is our story too in this way:  Like Israel, we are born into humanity in an instant; the next threescore-and-ten years are a labyrinth of exploration, pain of wrong choices, momentary happy times, and lots of surprises.  It’s not all melancholy, but Life-101 can be a tough teacher! 

If repeating the mistakes of our ancestors isn’t enough, most of us also find new ways to create potholes in navigating our life’s highway.  Trouble, like Job’s sparks flying upward from the fire, is the way of humanity.  If it isn’t a natural disaster, we create enough unnatural ones, wars, terrorists, meddling relatives, greed, lust, envy…and so the minefield continues.  

The people who celebrate the Passover are the same as those who come to the Lord’s Supper table.  We all eat the bread with urgency, with the taste of bitter herbs on our tongues, remembering the acrimonious darkness of sin and how it enslaves us.  And we try to heed the instructions to be fully dressed, wearing sandals of peace, helmet of salvation, belt of truth, and staff/sword of the spirit in hand[2].  All of this signifying we’re ready to move-out, drop it all, leave everything behind at the sound of our Lord’s voice.

Is it any wonder the Christian life is called a pilgrimage?  When you live life as a pilgrim, home is always somewhere else.  As with Augustine[3], how can we be at rest anywhere until our souls are at home with Him?

For You Today

If you celebrate a seder (Passover) meal, or the Lord’s Supper this week, remember this is the mark of a pilgrim; you’re a traveller…you’re not home yet. 

So, travel well, be sure-footed and safe, as you stay close to He who leads the way.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

[2] Ephesians 6:10-18

[3] Augustine, Confessions