Spent Out and Crushed

“Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
(Goodreads)

Today’s word of the day, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is, appropriately, ado. In noun form, ado means, “Action, activity; work, business; fuss.” You know, as in Much Ado About Nothing.

Today is Talk Like Shakespeare Day. Hmm? Prithee? “What trick, what device, what starting-hole canst thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and apparent shame?”

Today is Saturday, a more-or-less day of rest around here. Except this afternoon, we have a band concert to go to in Southlake. Not just go to it; I play in it. The Southlake Community Band will be playing at Art In the Square, at Southlake Town Square (I do believe I have been calling it “Center” all week), at 5:30 PM today. I need to spend some time, later today, to get my music in proper order and maybe even practice a bit. What a novel idea.

I can’t think of anything else to write, so I’ll move on to the next thing.

On this date, in 1564, according to tradition, William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-on-Avon. You can read the rest of the story at History.com.

Today’s birthdays include:

1564 – William Shakespeare, English writer and actor
1791 – James Buchanan, 15th POTUS
1891 – Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer
1921 – Warren Spahn, American baseball player
1923 – Dolph Briscoe, Governor of Texas
1928 – Shirley Temple, American actress
1932 – Jim Fixx, American athlete
1936 – Roy Orbison, American musician
1939 – Lee Majors, American actor
1942 – Sandra Dee, American actress
1949 – Joyce DeWitt, American actress, Three’s Company
1954 – Michael Moore, American filmmaker
1957 – Jan Hooks, American actress/comedian, Saturday Night Live
1960 – Valerie Bertinelli, American actress, One Day At A Time
1961 – George Lopez, American actor/comedian
1977 – John Oliver, British comedian, Last Week Tonight
1977 – Kal Penn, American actor, House
1977 – Andruw Jones, Curacaoan baseball player

Sergei Prokofiev was a Russian composer born on this date in 1891. One of the works that he is well-known for is his children’s work, “Peter and the Wolf.” Here is the march from that piece.

Boris Godunov, William Shakespeare, Miguel Cervantes, William Wordsworth, Buster Crabbe, Otto Preminger, Cesar Chavez, Howard Cossell, and Boris Yeltsin are among notable deaths on this date.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

(From Praying With the Psalms)

Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!
Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and I moan,
because of the noise of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they drop trouble upon me, and in anger they bear a grudge against me.
My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me.
Fear and trembling come upon me, and horror overwhelms me.
And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest;
yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah.
I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.”
Destroy, O Lord, divide their tongues; for I see violence and strife in the city.
Day and night they go around it on its walls, and iniquity and trouble are within it;
ruin is in its midst; oppression and fraud do not depart from its marketplace.
Psalm 55:1-11

Perhaps this is exactly why we don’t have wings. We would use them to fly away and escape unpleasant circumstances. There have been many times that I have felt exactly as the Psalmist in these verses. How I would love to fly away and find a quite, peaceful place to rest.

“You know, God, how often I want to get away from it all so I won’t have to face a world that spurns your love and rejects your life. But you also know how to give me courage: I wait for your help in Jesus Christ. Amen.”

(From My Utmost For His Highest)

“The Worship of the Work”

For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:9

This is one of Oswald Chambers’s recurring themes throughout this devotion. “Beware of any work for God which enables you to evade concentration on Him. A great many Christian workers worship their work.” Our main concern, as “Christian workers” should be to keep our concentration and devotion on God alone. This will make us as free as a child regarding all other margins of life. If we don’t approach things this way, we will sacrifice the “easy yoke” of Christ, and begin carrying the load on our own neck, by ourselves, which will result in us becoming “spent out and crushed.” There is no freedom in this type of life.

“There is no responsibility on you for the work; the only responsibility you have is to keep in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him.” Our main goal and aim is to “pour out a wholehearted devotion to Him,” in whatever he gives us to do.

Father, may I pour out my wholehearted devotion to you. May I constantly concentrate on you, rather than any work that you may have given me to do. Show me the work, but show me yourself more. Let me never be guilty of worshiping the work, and may I always join in with the “easy yoke” of Christ in my life. Let me not become “spent out and crushed.”

Come, Lord Jesus!

Grace and peace, friends.