“Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.” Titus 3:14
Recently my wife and I had a mutually stressful day. Usually, one of us is more up than the other and can pull the other one out of that funky hole. Not this time! I came ‘up’ with the idea of going ‘out’ to one of our favorite places to eat. A kind of ‘get-away,’ ‘pick-me-up’ place. I knew I had hit a home run when she smiled. So off we went.
After being seated, our waitress arrived. After asking her name I did what I do… I sang a song with her name in it. There are LOTS of songs with peoples names… when there is one that matches the greeted, it’s kind of an icebreaker and usually gets a smile. It didn’t! Determined to have a good night anyway, I let it slide so that we could go about getting out of our funk. We didn’t!
The term ‘waiter’ or ‘waitress’ is kind of an oxymoron. The job denotes that ‘they’ wait for the ‘patron’s’ orders and then deliver. In turn, the customer provides T.I.P.S…. ‘To Improve Professional Service!’ In this case, the only folks doing any WAITING were US. We waited and waited and… well you get the picture! We both felt like this day would never end. My wife asked, “have you ever felt like you are simply treading water?”
If you think about it, treading water is MUCH more difficult than treading on land. Movements are slowed and you never really GET anywhere… except more quickly fatigued. It’s days like this that make me think of the children of Israel during the 400 years of slavery in Egypt. The thought, at least, made me feel better, because at least we weren’t being PHYSICALLY beaten. But some days, mental and physical fatigue can feel just like we are.
A natural question that is too often in life is…“what can a believer DO when getting nowhere?” I believe the Holy Spirit was WAITING for my question. Because this Bible verse jumped right out at me like a TIP…. “Learn to DEVOTE!” One of my life thoughts is that I have never learned ANYTHING the easy way. Have you? Learning usually comes AFTER a crisis or difficult time. It FORCES me to pay attention so I can get out of difficulty quicker. In a rare mood, I felt like He was trying to tell BOTH of us something!
What can you do when exhausted from treading water? FLOAT! It is simply a way to take a break from the strain and simply STOP DOING! I felt like He was saying that in order to ‘DEVOTE,’ I needed to ‘FLOAT.’ I felt God calling me to do the ‘train track’ thing… to STOP, LOOK and LISTEN! Having been a believer for over 50 years, I like to say that Christ has NEVER let me down.. EVER! And here He was AGAIN… waiting for my attention.
This verse proves that God hates socialism! As servants, just like HIM… I cannot get the strength, courage or motivation to DO what He wants in and of myself. That has to come from Him. I must get back to square 1… the OBJECT of my faith. Devoting is like floating. It is a wonderful thought that Jesus never BEATS me into subjection! He simple calls me to Himself. “Come to ME… you who are weary… and ‘I’ will give you REST.” Between you, me and my wife…it’s the best TIP I got all week!
