Laugh More, Love More, Pray More
This summer I finally tackled a project at the cottage I have dreaded for twenty years… insulating the crawlspace so we could use the building in cold weather. Cleaning out the mess underneath, raking it, hauling in plywood and insulation, messing with Great Stuff, moving pipes, installing a vapor barrier, and making insulated cupboard doors. What a pain in the neck (and back, arms, and hands too)! However, I finally finished my work underneath. I even installed a cool thermometer that connects with a remote inside the house and tells me the temperature under the house and inside the house. It feels great to get a messy job finished! Then I dropped the remote and broke it. It still tells me the temperature under the house, but not inside the house anymore. It works, but it isn’t right.
Life seems that way. There is always some little thing to mess up a good day. Then I hear Jesus’ words to Martha in Luke, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things when only a few things matter, indeed only one thing.” I know that remote is not a huge issue, but just once I would like things to go the way I want them to go! Unfortunately, that isn’t the nature of creation. It was made good, but then it became corrupted by our sin. So God told Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? However, if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”
Everything we do for good, Satan works to turn to brokenness, and we can get caught up in letting him use little things to throw off God’s plan for our lives. My life will go on with a broken remote. So because of eternity, it indeed isn’t the one thing that matters. Satan uses anger and frustration to keep us focused away from God’s promise for our lives. My rule of thumb: if you won’t think about it in a week, it isn’t worth the anxiety today.
Laugh more, love more, pray more, and believe in God with all your heart.
Pastor Tom