Monday morning was messed up, for real! I didn’t sleep well thinking about the fact that the bottom level of our tri-level had been flooded by the amount of rainfall we received Wednesday through Saturday last week, raining a total that equaled about one and one-half the total our city typically receives for the whole month of April. Ironically, I had just taught a lesson from the biblical account of Noah and the ark on Sunday. But the “flood” wasn’t all that made Monday messed up! I know you younger folks say, “jacked up,” but let me stay with my generational vocabulary. On top of the “flood” in the lower level, I didn’t sleep well, going to bed at 11:00 p.m. and getting up the second time, to stay up, at 2:45 a.m. There’s more! I had to get all the paperwork in order to take to the CPA firm that I have been using for a few years. Doing taxes is not a task without stress and it will add to your feeling of being messed up as you anticipate will you get a refund or real mind-blowing call about the amount to be paid. Let me continue, and I will eventually get to the good part. I delivered my paperwork to a northside location, and the elevator is out. My senior citizen legs, the same ones that could hardly do 30 laps around the gym during my high school years as a teen, well, they were put to the test. I went up the stairs and down the stairs. Did I tell you Monday morning was messed up? After going to a department store just north of the CPA firm’s location, thinking in advance and buying some clothes that I know drowned in the “flood,” I went to the car wash; the $45 one that does inside and outside. Next, I went to the grocery store and brought food for two days and some other requested items on a list left by my loving spouse. I noticed, sadly, the prices have already increased dramatically. Enough! Here is what really made Monday morning a messed-up day. As I was waiting in the checkout line, being at peace, showing what I would call uncharacteristic, great patience, I looked at the magazines on the rack to my left. The magazine had a title that said, “The History of God.” That was the messed-up magazine referred to in the title above. The cost for this publication was around $16. You know what? I wanted to write a note that said, “Don’t buy this magazine! Get a bible and start in Genesis and don’t stop reading! Somewhere you will read where the Lord said I am the Lord. Somewhere you will find that you can’t check the history of our God. He is the great I am. He was, He is, and He will always be the one and only true and living God.” I was so focused on the messed-up magazine that the person behind me in line said, “Sir,” as he pointed to the empty conveyor belt and signaled it was my turn to be waited on. The messed-up magazine made it a messed-up Monday morning because I know some folks who don’t know God and who have not looked in the word of God that will find the magazine intriguing. They will be led astray by the “noise” that will be filled with speculation and unfounded explanations.
I went on and checked out, but that magazine cover stayed on my mind. You can tell, it is still bothering me. If I go back to the store, I am going to put a home improvement, decorating magazine on top of it. I should have done so while I was there, right! But I had to check out and get back home.
Read some of what God had to say to Job in the verses below. This will give you “some” history. But keep reading and get a fuller picture later today. And, yes, it is from the word of God, true, and inspired by Him.
For me, today is better, and later I am going to go to the store whether I need to or not. As I check out, I will play “stockboy,” rearranging the magazines to minimize the harm that the messed-up magazine might cause others. I hope your day is better and filled with opportunities to let your light shine and be the salt of the earth. Be blessed!
“Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:‘Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you,and you shall answer me.’ ‘Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone—while the morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy?’‘Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt’?” (Job 38:1-11 NIV)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King