“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” (Psalm 119:105)
One of the founding members of our church who has gone home to be with the Lord used to emphasize a stated point by using the word “buddy!” For example, as a co-worker, when I told her about the church that I was being charged to plant on the westside of town, she said, “I’ll be there, and I will be there until the end…buddy!” She kept her word! When correcting a young person or counseling an older person she would use her word of emphasis with a strong intonation or inflection of her voice. I can hear her now saying to a young man, “You need to change your ways…buddy!”
Over a year ago I was moving a decorative and breakable piece from upstairs to downstairs. I did not turn on the light and I thought I had walked down all the steps. I was wrong. There was one more step and I fell awkwardly, okay better said, goofy-like. I stumbled and fell! I had a few sore places on my shoulder and back, but I did not drop the decorative item. No sir! No ma’am! I continued my task of relocating the object, still perfectly intact. As a side note, this reminds me of when we have our failings, we are still held intact in the Lord’s hand, His merciful, forgiving, hand. Now, back to my true story. I had one more piece to take downstairs, a color coordinating piece. But guess what? Yes! I said it aloud, borrowing from the founding member’s word of emphasis cited above, “Not this time…buddy! Yes! I turned on the light to keep from stumbling again! The stairs were so much easier to go down – with the light.
Both you and I will continue to journey through life this Wednesday morning. There will be some things that will try to trip us up, trap us in situations that we should easily evade, take us to a place of discontent, or turn us back to doing something we have already renounced and recovered from. Here is what we shall say to such things: “Not this time…‘buddy!’” Pause before saying….“buddy!” And to assure we are successful in avoiding a failing, better said, a falling, and being faced with consequences that can be easily avoided, we should depend on the word of God to illuminate our path and influence our every step. Walk in the light today my friend! No falling, no failing, no falling for any dark way…not this time…”buddy!” Be blessed!
“You have turned on my light! The Lord my God has made my darkness turn to light.” (Psalm 18:28 The Living Bible)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King