One of my readers wrote yesterday:
“I so was moved by meeting you and experiencing the Jesus I saw in you. That peace has stayed on my mind. I was once there. I want that back. I have begun to pray for God to create in me a clean heart . . . once again. I know He will and I wait expectantly.”
Wow! That e-mail made me feel pretty good. Remember that verse in Matt. 5:14 – You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
“Oh yeah!” I smugly thought, “Uh huh, I be doing somethin’ right!”
WRONG!
I received that email before my day had begun to fall apart. You know the feeling, first one bad thing happens and then another, and then another, and soon you feel you are in a downward spiral heading to the bottomless pit. (And before you realize it, you’re feeling and acting like you belong there.)
First I discovered that a former employee, (who recently pled guilty to felony grand larceny for stealing construction materials from us and received a slap on the wrist three year probation, paltry fine and restitution sentence), is tormenting me again. Now he has a website advertising his construction business using photos of Honey Lake Plantation Resort and Spa, (without our permission), to advertise his business, so I assume he can rip others off too.
Gr-r-r-r-r-r Talk about adding insult to injury, I don’t even want to tell you about the evil thoughts that ran through this old sociopath’s mind when I found out about that one.
Several more “stinking-thinking” events happened throughout the day including learning that various knucklehead employees made various bonehead mistakes that cost us time and money which caused the veins to bulge from my neck and yes profanity to spew from my lips.
To top it off, late in the afternoon I found that I could not speak at an event next weekend because of a credentialing problem. The guy in charge of the event told me that had he known I was going to attend two weeks ago he could have easily had me ready to go, but now it was too late.
Well isn’t that just swell – I’d only submitted my schedule five months ago but their organization’s bureaucracy apparently lost it or ignored it.
Gr-r-r-r-r-r
When I tried talking to the powers that be, (those in charge of the bureaucracy), to offer some common sense suggestions for improvement of the system, I ran up against the proverbial stone wall of, “If it’s broke – then DON’T fix it”.
GR-r-r-r-r-r – *&#$
“Jesus in me?” “Peace?” “Clean heart?” What’s that? By now I’m spewing venom and ready to commit homicide!
I called a friend of mine to obtain Godly counsel; (actually I wanted to rant and needed someone who would listen to me). He was the ideal person to call. Not only did he listen, he actually joined in and ranted too. We had a jolly time ranting back and forth about all kinds of things for almost an hour. He’d listen to me rant and then we would alternate and I’d listen to him rant. Choice words were flying through the air like witches on Halloween. (I’m glad Obama’s name didn’t come up or we would have been there for another couple of hours.)
At the end of our conversation my friend quietly quoted a verse, Eph. 6:12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”. And then he said that our fight is not with those around us, but with satanic forces and we need to keep that in mind lest they win those battles.
Hmmm . . . I agreed and we both calmed down to a point whereby someone observing us would have never believed that black slimy ooze had been secreting from our lips just prior to hearing that Scripture. My peace had returned and in spite of my dark heart, Jesus was in me once again.
Duhhh . . . He never left. He was very busy trying to clean up one mess, but before I would allow Him to calm me down and help with that one I would blunder forward like an enraged bull in a china shop and create another mess, after mess, after mess. I know it has to be perplexing to Him in dealing with me, kind of like a baby with diarrhea . . . (Sick).
Yikes! I hate to burden Him so.
I hope He doesn’t run out of diapers . . .
Hmmm . . . It’s not lost on me that my breakthrough in restoring my peace came from hearing Scripture. We can’t ever go wrong in reading the Bible. When things spiral down, we must slow down and withdraw from our rant and allow the Jesus who lives in us to clean our hearts and restore our peace, (and sanity).
He speaks to us through the Bible. We need to refer to it often.
Have a great Mother’s Day weekend and take her to Honey Lake Church on Sunday and treat her to a day of faith, family, friends, and fun. She deserves it and so do you . . . (If you don’t take her to Honey Lake Church take her somewhere to church – you won’t be sorry!)
2 Tim 3:16
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,