the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Daily Devotionals
Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
"Rain, rain, go away. Come again some other day. Little Susie wants to play." Or Johnny, or Billy or Cathy. Or the Northeast. States that don't normally get pounded by rain have been heavily hit in recent days. Massachusetts has been deluged. The images are those that one does not normally see coming out of that grand old state. I can remember the long ago phrase, "Banned in Boston." I would imagine that, if they could, they would ban rainy weather for a few weeks to allow them to recover.
I know, I know. Some wag will make the comment, "Come August we'll be wishin' we had some of this." Some, yes, but all of it? Rain is a good thing. It makes the flowers grow and trees begin to flourish and the grass in my yard grow. Well, two out of three ain't bad. But too much of a good thing is just simply too much. Water the lawn, yes. Cover the lawn? Not good. Many of the blessings that come through natural causes are not good when received in abundance.
Rain, wind and snow when received in small amounts can be advantageous. In large amounts they turn deadly. Floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and blizzards have claimed countless millions of lives over the generations of mankind. There's hardly a family that can't comment about either a tragedy or near tragedy that has touched their lives as a result of a "natural disaster." What about unnatural disasters? Is it possible to get too much of a good thing? In other words, can we over do it?
Ask the compulsive gambler, the alcoholic or the grossly obese. They have lost wealth, family and live in fear of prematurely losing their life. But what of other things? Too much fun instead of work? Too much sleep instead of activity? Too much church instead of life? No, that's not a misprint. It is entirely possible to get so wrapped up in churchy things that we forget God. We begin to get focused on us and programming and totally block out the real reason Christ died. It wasn't so we could have big numbers in church, but so God could have big numbers in heaven.
"Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God." Ephesians 5:17-21 That's not instructions for a worship service, but for a life filled the right amount of a good thing.
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' Copyright 2010 © Tom Kelley. 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' articles may be reproduced in whole under the following provisions: 1) A proper credit must be given to the author at the end of each story, along with their complete bio and a link to https://www.studylight.org/ 2) 'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' content may not be arranged or "mirrored" as a competitive online service.
