A Saturday Special Edition!

Which Path – Again, Ask, Together – Gain vs. Forfeit – Put the Tent Aside

I once had a goal to blog and impact the world with my efforts. Looking back, I think there was some showing off about how well I knew the Astros and baseball that got in the way. Later, I decided I would try to help my kids and my sister a little with what I wrote. I still hope they read it and get something out of it, but I finally came to do this only for me, and while I want to make it something that can have a positive impact on the world or my kids or my sister, I really want it to have an impact on me.

Put the tent aside. Makes we want to go back and read the scripture reference. Paul was a tent maker and when he was not preaching or teaching, he was making tents. Tents were much more widely used for shelter in Paul’s day than now in America. Tents are for pleasure in our world, not for saving us from wind or rain or snow or bugs or wild animals. Looking at this phrase I see a duality of putting aside our work and putting aside our demand for physical needs to meet the spiritual needs of ourselves and those around us. Note that our family needs us to do so more than many others.

Which path. My oldest is looking at colleges. She has spent a huge amount of time and effort getting to this point. She has what I would believe is an outstanding resume and opportunity set. We spent time this year visiting schools, taking tests, filling out applications, paying to apply, and writing essays. (We is applied a little loosely.) Our goal from the beginning was to get to the point where she had the opportunity to pick which school she wants to go to and have nothing in the way except possibly money. With scholarships and savings and jobs and such, any money issue is really more about whether we want to spend it to go to one school over another. SMU cost a lot of money, but is it really worth it over UT Dallas? She has said that she is just trying to figure out where God is calling her to go, and I am just trying to figure out the same thing. Which path. About the only thing we know now is that the path is most likely gonna start on Fry and go to 290. About what we knew once we moved here.

Gain vs. Forfeit. I have no doubt this is from the verse about the value of gaining the whole world compared to the cost of forfeiting your soul. My earliest memories have been solidly on the side that my soul has more value than anything or everything in the universe. I guess it is why I never could understand a bribe. The stories I hear of people taking bribes to do wrong I do not get. The dollar amounts never seemed enough to justify the betrayal, much less the sin aspect.

Again, Ask, Together. My mind is dominated by the admonition to pray together and expect God to deliver whatever you ask for. God will only give us answers to our prayers that are consistent with who He is, but whether it is a light to let a little girl know her dad made it to heaven or a marker in a Bible to let you know God has something for you on that particular page, He will do more than we can ask or imagine. I wonder if I will keep returning to that phrase over and over as I continue to learn more and more from my fellow believers.