Skip to main content

My Stuff


I don't think we realize that the stuff we think we own isn't really ours.  From the time of being born into this world and cosmos, all that we have has been given to us.  We didn't even arrive  with the ability to provide ourselves with food or clothing.  We were dependent from the start. All  has been given, even our ability to take that very first breath of life outside of the comfort of our mother's womb.  All is really God's stuff.


Watching my winter garden thrive, as broccoli and brussel sprouts are developing, I am mindful that although I have been the one to water the garden, to shoo away pesty insects, the actual growth and ultimate vegetable to eat is beyond me.  It's a transformation process I see outwardly, but a mystery as to how each day it is changed.  I see that this early morning, as the eastern sky has painted a magnificent spray of color before me.  Each day, each morning there has never been a sunrise like that one before.  Amazing to think that the Creator has such an imagination to come up with a brand new painting these thousands, maybe millions of years!


God's stuff, all of this earth is His stuff, essentially on loan for us to care and to be good caretakers of His things.  But just like the Israelites of years past, we are not very good or consistent at caring for His things.  Israel was the chosen nation of God to actually bless the entire world and its people.  But selfishness, greed, slothfulness, and disregard frequently surfaced in their relationship to the earth and to God.  They had to be reminded, often it seems, that their worship was disrespecting God and what was rightfully His.  He reminded them that it was He who chose them to be a special people, it was  ". . . My priests to go up to My altar . . . why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel?" (I Samuel 2:28-29).


Here we are today, no different from thousands of years and generations before us.  We  live on a planet that has been ravaged and raped for its resources, only to make us fat in our bodies and pockets.  And it has often been done at the expense of oppressing or exterminating others different from us.  John Woolman writes of this in his journal, as he knew from the very start of our nation, the wrong that was inflicted on God's country, "I . . . was covered with sorrow and heaviness on account of the spreading, prevailing spirit of this world, introducing customs grievous and oppressive on one hand, and cherishing pride and wantonness on the other." (The Journal of John Woolman, p. 150). But yet, God keeps giving us another opportunity to make a change, He continues to give His mercy and grace for us to live another day.  He desires that we return to Him, remove from us the false gods of self, redirect our focus on Him who alone is the rightful owner of all that we are and have, and follow in His steps.  

Just follow, walk this way, place my feet in His steps, the Jesus way. And above all, remember all of what lies before me today and tomorrow is His.  I take joy and comfort in knowing that, and in the meantime, receiving what He has given me with gratitude.




 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Easter Production

Driving down the freeway, the large billboard caught my eye.  "Join us for our Easter Production,"  it beckoned with splashy brown and orange colors.  It made me think, yes, that's what the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been reduced to. . . a man made production.  Even this very day we celebrate, the headlines are all about the celebrities that attract the biggest Easter crowd.  E.G. "Tim Tebow draws thousands to Texas Easter service."  Once again, I had to think . . . who is Easter really about?  What happened to "Jesus draws a crowd?" I have grown tired of celebrity worship.  Yet, it seems in America that is what most Christians are interested in. We flock to mega churches, we drink in videos and studies all geared to keep us simple minded and complacent.  No longer is theology a priority to be taught.  No, it's better to read through the Bible in a year by reading only 5 minutes a day.  Never mind, contemplating or discuss...
Post a Comment
Read more

Close Encounters of the Spiritual Kind

   " Put yourself in the path that God will work." (Pastor Martin Smith, 1/2024)  On a crisp, clear Saturday morning, I started up the hill with Gypsy Rose eagerly leading the way.  I was more caught up in the fresh air feeling that was invigorating, than paying attention to the few cars that passed us by.  But there up ahead, a small red truck had slowed to the curb to flag me down.  "Could I help him find his son's house?" He was an older gentleman with his phone in hand.  He couldn't reach his son because the calls only went to voicemail, and he didn't have his address, only that it was somewhere here in Rancho.  I googled his son for him, but unfortunately, it only brought up an older address which was the current address now for this man.  There was no updated address for Rancho Cucamonga.  I told him the bad news, but he was so very gracious.  He did everything to show me that he was for real, pulling out  his driver lice...
Post a Comment
Read more

Awe

  The thunder resounded with a loud clap! Certainly, it came as an afternoon surprise.  The expected rain seemed less than what was forecasted, but with the thunder came a bucket of heavy raindrops splashing against my kitchen window.  I wanted to take it all in, the fresh aroma of falling rain and the beauty of water drops hitting the leaves of my nasturtium and petunia hanging baskets.  Unfortunately, the rain cloud quickly fled, running away into the eastern sky.  But then the sun made its way onto the scene, and I was drawn to a thick band of rainbow colors shining up at me.  The western sky was magnificently orange, completely bound up tight with that solo color scheme.  I went outside to catch it all before it would disappear.  Creation again was causing me to pause in awe and wonder. . . Awe is that reverential wonder, that even includes fear and respect.  It is only a 3 letter word, but it takes bigger and grander words to define it....
Post a Comment
Read more