“It is a profound irony that the Son of God visited this planet and one of the chief complaints against him was that he was not religious enough.”
– Rebecca Manley Pippert

“Your home can be a place for dying or living, for wilting or blooming, for anxiety or peace, for discouragement or affirmation, for criticism or approval, for profane disregard or reverence, for suspicion or trust, for blame or forgiveness, for alienation or closeness, for violation or respect, for carelessness or caring.  By your daily choices, you will make your home what you want it to be.”
–Carole Sanderson Streeter

It is easy for me to take for granted the fact that I have a God-given ability to choose. It is equally as easy, sometimes more easy to give over my ability to choose. Reading Streeter’s words above reminded me of that this morning. Standing up for my ability to choose is not always easy, due to situations, circumstances, etc. Isn’t making choices, the “right” choices, a responsibility that I have as one of God’s children? Did God give me the freedom of choice only that I might choose, in turn, to give that over to another? No, He allows me to choose, to make decisions, in order that I would choose to be like Him. My responsibility is to be in His Word, to be in fellowship with His disciples, to be in conversation with the Spirit and with Him. In doing those things might I daily make choices that draw His kingdom closer. Choices that reflect the fact that God is by Savior and Lord.

Joshua 24:15 (New International Version) – “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Today, what kind of home will I, will you, choose? To what will you have others look to you for?

“One can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth.  Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth.  If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.”
–Simone Weil

Interesting confluence of thoughts this morning. I am sitting in a Starbucks waiting for a client and an old friend happened in and among other things said that I needed to get him some of my words this morning. Thank you, Carl. Where have the days gone? I think that the words I read above this morning took on a special meaning as I digested Carl’s comment. For me, I think the wrestling has been between my writing just to write, and my writing devotionally. So far, most times I write it seems to be for one use or the other, with the “just writing” coming more frequently.

One of the things that we as His children have to do (or get to do) on a regular basis is wrestle with our gifts from Him. Some of our gifts require time and energy that means we must set aside others. This isn’t a bad problem to have. But it can mean that as we are using one gift we appear to be neglecting others. All the more reason to be constantly in prayer as to which gifts to be exercising at a given time. We will go through seasons. And that’s okay.