I was reading an article the other day of a couple who, post retirement, were moving out of the home in which they had lived for decades to move to a smaller house. The gentleman told of the process of deciding what to keep and what to give away or throw away. He said that in the process he realized he had something he never knew he had...enough.
I could immediately understand what he meant. That dawning came to me when we first started backpacking. Carrying everything you need on your back for several days causes one to separate what is needed from what is wanted. While there were a few "wanted" items which made it into my backpack, mostly what comprised my twenty-five pound pack weight were necessary items. I learned that I could easily go without many things which previously I might have considered absolutely necessary. I realized it is possible for "enough" to be comprised of so much less than I thought.
In truth, for those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is only one thing that comprises "enough" and that is Him. We can lose all else, but as long as we have Him we will have love, peace, joy, goodness, longsuffering, gentleness, meekness, temperance and faith. He alone is all we need for every moment of every day, including the dark nights and the sunny afternoons.
Trust in the Lord always, for having Him we have all.
"For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power."
I have always liked the Christmas song, "Good King Wenceslas". It has a nice tune, beautiful harmony and a sweet story.
I didn't know until recently that Wenceslas actually existed, though he was a Bohemian Earl, not a king. Wenceslaus I or Vaclav the Good was Duke of Bohemia from 921 until his death when he as killed with a lance by his brother Boleslaus the Cruel. After his assassination, he was posthumously declared a monarch.
Apparently, Wenceslas was well known for his kind acts. He would rise up from his bed every night and with only one chamberlain, or "page," went around to God's churches and gave generously to widows, orphans, those in prison and those afflicted by difficulties. He was considered the father of all the wretched and the song reflects his good acts.
The story of the Christmas carol is that Wenceslas is out with his page and sees a poor man gathering "winter fuel." The monarch and the page bring food, wine and pine logs to the poor man even though there were "rude winds...and bitter weather."
At one point the page says to the monarch:
"Sire, the night is darker now
and the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart I know not how
I can go no longer."
Wenceslas answers the page:
"Mark my footsteps, good my page
Tread though in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."
As the page followed in his master's footsteps, he found that "heat was in the very sod, which the saint had printed."
This is the part that struck me so much this year, Wenceslas telling the page to mark his footsteps and the page feeling that heat was in the very sod where the saint has walked. It reminded me of these verses:
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." Colossians 2:6
"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Colossians 2:9
There are times in our lives where the "winter's rage" of life blows too strongly against us and we don't know how we can go on. But the Lord calls us not to walk in our own strength, but in the "power of His might." (Ephesians 6:10.) We are called to plant our feet in His footsteps, as it were, and trust Him for the strength and power to do what He has called us to do. When we do, like the page in the carol, we will know His power, His strength and His enabling to "mark" His footsteps.
"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
How can the word "Positive" bring such negative feelings? I'm not sure, I only know it certainly did this morning.
I had gone to the Urgent Care expecting to be given antibiotics for what I thought was an ear infection. I am prone to ear and sinus infections at the beginning of winter and I assumed this was what was causing my ears and throat to burn.
Also, I needed a negative Covid test to return to work since a coworker came down with Covid during a shift we shared a few nights ago.
Only I didn't get a negative test.
"I am so sorry, the test was positive," the physician's assistant said.
"What?" I exclaimed, more with incredulity than with lack of understanding.
It couldn't be! I couldn't be Covid positive two days before Christmas. We have a Christmas dinner for eleven partially cooked already! The 20+ pound turkey is resting quietly on the shelf in the refrigerator just waiting to be put in brine tonight. Almost all of the presents are wrapped and the stockings are waiting for their stuffed debut.
But the play has been canceled. We have Covid in the house.
I texted the result to Glen from the examination room. I had just texted him that I did not have hypertension (which I already knew) when the PA came in with my Covid result.
"I DO however have Covid" was my next text.
"Oh..." was his response. Followed by the very best thing he could have said...
"Well...'This is the Lord's doing'... "
Which I followed with the remainder of Psalm 118:23:
" '...it is marvellous in our eyes.' "
Psalm 118:23 has been my life verse for decades and it represents to me a choice. No matter what the circumstances, being diagnosed with a pandemic virus, having all our Christmas plans fall apart, being isolated from family for ten days during the most family-oriented season of the year, there is one choice. That choice is to believe that "This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes," or not.
Moe than once the Scriptures tell us that "as for God, His way is perfect." (2 Samuel 22:31, Psalm 18:30.)
If His way is perfect, and He allowed this virus to take up temporary residence in my body, how can I not choose to see that as a marvelous thing? He knows things I do not know. Perhaps if our family Christmas celebration were allowed to go as scheduled, some or all, of my family may have been injured or killed in a terrible car accident. I do not know the future, but the Lord does, as if it were happening this very second. My role is not to know these things and decide, but to know Him and decide to trust Him.
One thing is for certain, I have never clung to that verse by faith and been disappointed for doing so, and I have faith I won't now either. Do I understand how He will work the details out? Not a clue. Do I need to know? No, He will work in and through us to accomplish His will and His way in His time. My only duty is to trust Him by faith that He is perfectly faithful.
Ewan Davis and Jim Kelly could not be more different, but in the most important respect, they are so very much alike.
Jim Kelly was a resident at a local nursing facility when we first started doing services there 19 years ago. Jim was a vibrant, effusive man who was active until he was 98 when a stroke confined him to a wheelchair. The stroke, however, only diminished his strength. His mind was as sharp as a tack and the twinkle in his eye and light in his spirit were as bright as ever. Full of laughter, kindness and love of life, he was a joy and pleasure to all who knew him. We were blessed to know him for three years. His love for life was contagious and he taught us all that the love and wonder of life was not based on what was around us, but upon what -- or better, Who -- was within us.
Ewan Davis is an energetic five year old and our youngest grandson. He is kind, loving and thoughtful and has an impish grin that will make you smile back, whether you feel like it or not. His laughter is infectious.
Last night our family met at the house of our youngest daughter, Emmie, to decorate her tree. This has become a Christmas tradition to which we all look forward. Ewan, of course, was there. Ewan loves to have his family around him and loves to be involved in what the grown-ups are doing. At one point he could contain his exuberance no longer and stated, "This is the best night, ever!" With Ewan, this was not hyperbole, this was what he was actually feeling. It is not the first time I have heard him express this sentiment and it reminded me so much of Jim Kelly.
Jim Kelly made a conscious choice in his life to see the best in everything. Like Ewan, I heard him say on more than one occasion, "This is the best day of my life!" Also like Ewan, this was not just a sentence, it was the expression of his true feelings at the moment. The man in the wheelchair, living in a nursing facility, was so full of the love of God and knowledge of His goodness, that each day was "the best day of my life".
If we believe that the Lord is "working all things together for good" (Romans 8:28) in our lives, then we must also believe that He is actively working in this moment, and each and every moment. This is exactly the belief that leads to the "best day of my life" outlook. God is working right now, wherever I am, whether in a wheelchair in a nursing home, or at my aunt's house decorating her Christmas tree.
Am I headed to work knowing it will be a busy night, with many babies to come and not quite enough nurses? God is working in that very shift, each of those 12 hours, each of those 720 minutes, even each of those 43, 200 seconds. He has a lesson to teach me and truth to reveal to me in the place and time He has placed me that I can learn no where else. Not only that, He also has some blessing He wants me to be to others in that same place and time. He has prepared the possibility of "the best day of my life" if only I will trust Him by faith to see that. Jim Kelly, in his years of experience with the Lord knew this and Ewan Davis in his experience of joyful childhood, knows this, too. I pray that, like Jim and Ewan, I will know this more and more each day.
"This is the Lord's doing, it is marvelous in our eyes.
