Scripture
I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”
~Luke 12:19, NIV
Quote
There is nothing more foolish than for a human to think he or she has life under control.
~Tim Keller
Solomon said is Proverbs 1:32, “For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.” No matter what you have achieved in life or how much wealth you have amassed, you are not immune to bereavement, illness, betrayal, financial collapse or even tragedy. A sweet woman was devastated with her husband’s prolonged sickness. She told me, “I don’t understand it Bro. Jack, we prayed the prayer of Jabez every morning.” The prayer of Jabez or any other prayer in scripture does not assure us of smooth sailing. Job was a good man. He was a better man than anyone you know and that includes your daddy. Job suffered tragedy, the loss of ten children in one horrific storm. No amount of wealth, success, planning or political clout can make us immune to suffering. A fool is a person who firmly believes he has everything under control. I quote my son often on this matter: I heard him say in a prayer some years ago, “Father one thing is certain, we are not in control, You are.” He hit the nail on the head.
We are live some where in between the two extremes of smug complacency{pride} and anxiety. We are not to be over confident like the rich fool in Luke 12 but at the same time, we are not to worry and fret over the uncertainty of the future. Jesus said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” The mark of a fool is his pride in his own self-sufficiency but it is almost as harmful to live in a state of panic and deep anxiety. The key is to surrender to the fact that God is in control and it could very well be His will that we suffer but we are not to worry because when that time comes He will give us sufficient grace to bear the suffering. The end result is what keeps us going and that is what God has in mind. Gold is purified by extreme heat. In order for God to get the very best out of us, we have to undergo some suffering. It is all a part of the process.
My knees were aching last Saturday: it is my new weather alert system that tells me when a cold front is coming. You young folks can go ahead and laugh, get it our of your system but your day is coming. I made fun of my mammy-in-law all the time and now I have every thing she complained about [almost]. I get that old pasty mouth during the night, and I wake up with the blind staggers. Probably the one I hate most is the arthritis is my hands that make it a chore to button my shirt or open a bottle. COLD WEATHER does not help. My knees aren’t hurting today: they are numb. For the first time since I build my office building, my heater cannot get the job done. I am sitting here with two layers of clothes and boots and I’m still cold. I am not complaining: I will take it over 95 plus weather but I love those 60’s like we had last week.
Don’t forget to pray for the President. I am looking forward to the heat wave coming today–they say it will get up to 40 degrees–beats the heck out of 23.