SKID ROW OR SHANGRILA?

(These thoughts are added to three times a week)

Blind is the man who does not leave this world better than when he came into it. Thoreau used to say, with modest pride, that he always returned a borrowed axe sharper than when he received it. Well, when your last pulse beat is stilled and your last breath is taken, when your soul goes up and your body lies down, what will you have been determined to be blind to?

Have you ever stopped to think that sometimes when you believe you are being mentally independent you are really being mentally incompetent? Indeed, we are all sometimes like the lady who sitting in the jury box argued, “I don’t listen to the evidence. I prefer to make up my own mind.”

God gives a commandment, and we treat it like a suggestion. Too often writing God’s commandments down…in pencil…with an eraser handy, or in this age of computers with our finger poised above the delete button. And done too often, it’s, “Hello, spiritual skid row.” For remember skid row is not only a place but an attitude.

We have a beautiful yard. It looks like it does and stays like it is because my wife spends many hours working in it. She controls the weeds so they don’t take over. She plans how she wants things to look and they look that way because she follows through. She could do nothing, but if she did nothing, very soon our beautiful yard wouldn’t be beautiful anymore.

I have written a parody on the 23rd Psalm in an attempt to describe how some folk live and what they dedicate their lives to:
Nothing is my shepherd,
I shall therefore forever want.
Nothingness makes me to lie down in spiritual laziness.
It leadeth me beside still, stagnant pools of nothingness.
It leadeth me in the paths of rationalization and excuses.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of dedicated deeds and lives
I will not fear becoming like them, for nothing is with me.
Its teachings and spirit comfort me.
It prepareth a table of alibis before me and ignores reality.
It annointeth my head with foolishness,
My cup of nothingness runneth over.
Surely nothing and more nothingness shall follow me all the days of my life
And I will dwell in the land of no God and no Godly deeds forever.

Do you know who and what a good Christian is? He is a man or woman who is good - for nothing. That’s right. His soul is not for sale to the highest bidder. He will do right if a thousand are watching or no one is watching. He requires no praise for his acts of righteousness

You know I got to thinking the other day about how a cow gets lost. My daddy grew up on a farm and for many years we would go back each summer and visit the family at the old homestead, so this city boy got a little used to cows. So there I was in the middle of Miami, thinking about how a cow nibbles her way into the dilemma of “Where am I?”

Well, she’s out there in the field dining. And when she has eaten all the grass beneath her nose she moves on to new grass and keeps on eating until she may eat her way right up to a hole in the fence. And then, if she’s not careful, wander through the hole to nibble the grass on the other side until finally, she literally has nibbled her way to being lost. Nibble by nibble by nibble, not thinking about anything but what is happening at the moment, she soon gets totally lost.

We humans don’t usually make one big choice that is a big mistake. We nibble our way to disaster, one little mistake at a time, until finally all the little mistakes turn out to become one big mistake. And if we are not careful, we have wasted a life.

Think about this. Your candle was tall on the day you were born, when God first lit its tapered end with the glow of life, but now you have to ask the question, “Where has all the wax gone? And why? And what am I going to do with what is left?”

Would you have more of Shangri-la in your life than skid row? Then first, believe in the Bible. It tells you who you are, and why you are. What you ought to be doing and where you ought to be going. Take the Bible at its word and you are well on your way to more successful living. Yes, it is dogmatic. It does not argue its points - it says sin is sin, God is God, Jesus is Savior and man needs to be saved. We may live in a gray world, but the Bible shouts out at us that good is good, bad is bad and never the twain shall meet. This may annoy some philosophers who like to argue there is no such thing as right and wrong, but the Bible is out to influence people first and make friends second.

Second, believe in yourself. Humility is a virtue but not if it causes you to ignore your own worth. It doesn’t really matter if there are a thousand things you cannot do, what matters is there are some things you can do. They are called talents. God gave them to you. Jesus talked about them. He made it quite clear that whatever talents you have, you should use them. That it is a sin to hide your talents under a basket of lazy excuses. Maybe your talent is making money, so then make it, but not just for yourself. Perhaps your talent is singing, then sing, enjoy it, study it, improve it, but not just for yourself. Maybe your talent is organization, then organize. Look for disorganization and overcome it, but not just for yourself. Maybe your talent is just being able to smile sweetly, or listen patiently, or be a very good neighbor; then smile sweetly, listen patiently, be a good neighbor. You were made in the image of God. Made to image God. Do it.

Thirdly, believe in others. Study Jesus - He believed in everyone. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” He said it from the cross, and He named no exceptions.

It’s a challenge but it does us all good to remember that kites rise to their highest and best when they fly against the wind.