Devotionals

Matthew 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-13; Colossians 2:8-23

The longer I live the less I know for sure.

That sounds like 50 per cent heresy...but it's 100 per cent honesty. In my younger years I had a lot more answers than I do now. Things were absolutely black and white, right or wrong, yes or no, in or out, but a lot of that is beginning to change. The more I travel and read and wrestle and think the less simplistic things seem.

I now find myself uncomfortable with sweeping generalities...with neat little categories and well-defined classifications.

Proverbs 21:4; Luke 18:9-14; John 12:42-43; Galatians 6:12-14

Matthew 12:33-37; John 17:20-26; 1 John 4:7-21

Somebody copied the following paraphrase from a well-worn carbon in the billfold of a 30-year veteran missionary. With her husband, she was on her way to another tour of duty at Khartoum, Sudan. No one seems to know who authored it, but whoever it was captured the essence of the greatest essay on love ever written.

Ecclesiastes 2:11; 4:4; 1 Thessalonians 5:16

My high school graduating class had its 30th anniversary reunion a number of summers ago. I'm sure they had a ball. A blast would better describe it, knowing that crowd. You gotta understand the east side of Houston back in the 1950s to have some idea of that explosive student body...a couple of thousand strong and a lot of 'em mean as a junkyard dog with a nail in his paw.

John 2:1-12; 7:1-9; 10:40-11:23

Genesis 12:1-8; Joshua 14:1-15; Psalm 33:3

I cannot imagine anything more boring and less desirable than being poured into the mould of predictability as I grow older. Few things interest me less than the routine, the norm, the expected, the status quo. Call it the rebel in me, but I simply cannot bear plain vanilla when life offers so many other colourful and stimulating flavours. A fresh run at life by an untried route will get my vote every time—in spite of the risk. Stay open-minded for a moment and I'll try to show you why.

1 Kings 4:29-34; Proverbs 2:1-10; 4:5-7; Isaiah 26:3; Romans 8:5-11; 12:2

Your mind is a muscle. It needs to be stretched to stay sharp. It needs to be prodded and pushed to perform. Let it get idle and lazy on you, and that muscle will become a pitiful mass of flab in an incredibly brief period of time.

How can you stretch your mind? What are some good mental exercises that will keep the cobwebs away? I offer three suggestions:

2 Corinthians 10:1-18; Galatians 6:1-5; James 2:1-12

If I may select a well-known phrase from the cobwebs of the 14th century and wipe away the dust to garner your attention, it is:

Comparisons are odious.

Hosea 1:1-11; 3:1-5; 6:1; Acts 20:20-21; Luke 15:8-10

Hosea started a scandal in the parsonage. Why? Hold onto your hat—he married a prostitute. Talk about gossip! His name became a byword for "fool." Respect for him dropped to zero. His reputation was suddenly null and void. "Small wonder he is listed first among the minor prophets," some sneer..."He must have been some kind of a nut."

Isaiah 45:5-9; 46:8-11; Daniel 5:18-21

The bitter news of Dawson Trotman's drowning swept like cold wind across Schroon Lake to the shoreline. Eyewitnesses tell of the profound anxiety, the tears, the helpless disbelief in the faces of those who now looked out across the deep blue water. Everyone's face except one—Lila Trotman. Dawson's widow. As she suddenly walked upon the scene a close friend shouted, "Oh, Lila...he's gone. Dawson's gone!" To that she replied in calm assurance the words of Psalm 115:3: