My wife and I were watching the news yesterday and they covered the President of the United States conducting an interview whereby he appeared on a radio show entitled “WTF”. Neither of us knew what that meant but our IT person, who happened to be in my office working on my computer, overheard our conversation and told us it means: “What the F***?” A few minutes into the interview he used the “N” word and my wife started railing about our president doing such a thing and for that matter appearing on a radio show with a name like that. I turned off the television set and put on some music and my wife said: “That sure is much better than listening to the news”.
Do you think?
I was mulling this incident over and it reminded me of briefly tuning into a baseball game the other night. Several people were “booing” their team the entire time that I watched the game. It makes me wonder why they paid good money to go to a game just to spend it being upset and yelling and screaming: “Boo you bums!” throughout the game. Why not engage in something that doesn’t enrage?
I recently got a letter from a subscriber about Words for the Day whereby the man complained that it was too long and wasn’t much of a devotional and he was tempted to unsubscribe.
Let’s see now I’ve written WFTD 5 days a week for over 16 years. Each entry has approximately 800-1200 words, so if I take
- 1000 words X 5 entries per week I write approximately 5000 words per week
- Multiplied X 52 weeks that amounts to about 260,000 words per year
- Multiplied X 16 years it amounts to a little over 4,160,000 words since the Lord originally put it on my heart to write it.
If this guy dislikes it now, just imagine if he had been reading it all of these years like some of my subscribers?
So maybe it is too long and not much of a devotional. If I was led to write a more traditional devotional at the typical 400 words per entry, I would do it; (I’m certainly capable of doing that and it would take much less time and effort).
Then why don’t I write it that way? The Lord did not call me to do that and it is Him that I’m trying to please. I don’t write them ahead of time and create an entire series of them that gets put on a daily auto-pilot. Nope I just get up in the morning and whatever the Holy Spirit puts on my mind gets written. I grieve, suffer, get discouraged and am sad, but I’m also happy, enjoy life, am encouraged, and glad. Through it all I try to tie in whatever subject I’m writing about with my understanding of God’s word which gets me through the good and bad times.
I believe that “Boo Birds” would enjoy life much more if they would just get up off the couch and turn off the news, stop rooting for a team that constantly loses and upsets them, and unsubscribe from devotionals that they dislike. Instead spend that time going for a walk in the woods, taking the family fishing, spend time reading, or whatever.
My wife’s fuming at the President of the United States for appearing on a radio show with a name like WTF and using the “N” word did not bother him at all. In fact he isn’t even aware of her disdain for him, and my belief is that even if he was aware of it he wouldn’t care anyway. So why get angry and waste precious time being mad and yelling at the television set about it. The TV doesn’t care either.
God did not create us to go around fuming all of the time. Spend your time wisely. I know as I enter the last inning of my life I wish I had not wasted so much time being a “Boo Bird”. I long to have that time back to spend on other things like serving God. Alas it cannot be reclaimed, but I can quit wasting time on things that I cannot control for whatever time does remain.
My friend Bill Glass once told us to never complain, whine, or blame someone else. He has been successful in everything he has ever undertaken including pro football and building a dynamic ministry with over 1 million decisions for Christ.
I told my wife that they make an on and off switch that will control her television set and that she should use it. I told the subscriber that doesn’t like WFTD that I will not be offended if he unsubscribes, because it is not for everyone. In fact I subscribe to a daily devotional Daily Hope with Rick Warren myself and enjoy it very much. There are plenty of short conventional devotionals from which to choose.
All of those of us who stick our heads above the clover are just like ground squirrels. We understand that someone is out there with a high powered rifle just itching to try and blow it off. I don’t worry about them, I’m just a lowly ground squirrel and I guess I’m too stupid to fear man, but make no mistake I am smart enough to fear God. When He asks or commands me to do something I’m going to do my doggone best to do it. And if He wants me to write 10 million words I will.
I suspect that there are many of us who serve God who are like that. And lest I sound like a hypocrite, I have immense trouble with offering only kind words to others myself. Nonetheless I know that it is the key to a better life for me and all of us. Someone has wisely said that, “If you cannot say anything nice about somebody then don’t say anything”. I have not always abided by that, but always regret it when I fail.
(Egad! This entry is 1046 words – No letters puh-leeze!)
Proverbs 12:25
“An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up”
June 23, 2015 – Click here to listen