Monday, January 31, 2022
On the Bright side:
There’s no grass to mow
mosquitoes to suffer
or wasps to interrupt one’s being outside.
No Matter the Season
The Devil’s always got enough doo-doo waiting.
Jeremiah 3:22
Return, O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness. ‘Here we come to you; for you are the Lord our God.
1 Peter 2:25
For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
Words of Grace For Today
The first kilometre out is a drive through the woods, which never gets plowed.
The tracks have, with the heavy snowfall onto which another foot is falling now, driven on many times over, have been packed down, while the snow across the rest of the trail remains relatively soft snow. Where the loose snow to be removed it would become obvious that the tracks are elevated above the rest of the trail … and when the temperatures rose to near and above freezing the tracks of hard packed snow turned to slippery snow or ice … and driving on the tracks became nearly impossible. The vehicle keeps slipping off into the foot to two feet deep snow that’s not been shovelled away, and beside the trail the snow has accumulated to 3 feet deep in places.
High on the tracks all is fine, but slipping down into the soft snow puts progress to a sudden halt.
Sheep go astray. Vehicles slide off the tracks. People slip on the Devil’s temptations into trouble, deep trouble, and life comes to a grinding halt … or not. Sometimes deep in the Devil’s temptations and trouble we keep living on blithely to the damage we do to ourselves and others around us, pleased as we are that even if we are caught in the Devil’s doo-doo, others are worse off than us (because we’ve put them there!)
God promises, I will heal your faithlessness.
God brings us back to the Good Shepherd and the guardian of our souls.
Thanks be to God.
Now what are we going to do with this renewed life? More wallowing in the Devil’s doo-doo, or work as the God-made saints God equips us to be?
It’s not easy doing God’s Will. It’s also not easy shovelling out a kilometre of tracks built up into hard packed snow ridges, crusty snow between and deep fluffy snow to each side. I trust that God will help immensely. It will take me about 2 months before I could possibly complete the task and by then God will have sent a bit of spring to melt away the snow … and the water will turn the tracks to mush. A whole other challenge made worse by the packed snow left on the trail.
It’s not easy doing what is right, but it is still right to do it. So off I go with a shovel as often and as long as my body will allow.
What are you going to do today with the life God renewed in you?