The Walk Is More Important Than the Work

“If the world was perfect, it wouldn’t be.”~~Yogi Berra
(BrainyQuote)

Today’s word of the day, from the Oxford English Dictionary, is perspicience, “Keen or clear perception; insight. In early use also: †the ability to see all things, infinite vision.”

A bonus WotD today, from Dictinoary.com, is catawampus, “askew; awry.”

Today is Panic Day. Forget Douglas Adams and his “Don’t panic” phrase for a day. Go ahead. Panic. I like what the website says: “Imagine a whole day devoted to what most of us do every morning, at least Monday to Friday.” Right? Just get it all over with in one day, and then, since it is also Get Over It Day, simply “get over it.”

The concert went pretty well, last night. I wasn’t completely satisfied with the way I played (but are we ever?), as there were still some parts in the music that took me by surprise. What that shows is the definite need to practice more outside of group rehearsals. You just can’t get to know the music well enough, practicing once a week. Hopefully, that’s a lesson learned. We did, however, get a standing ovation from the small crowd that attended. And it was good fun.

It’s Wednesday, and nothing’s going on tonight, which is good. I’m tired from two consecutive nights of band activity, and getting to bed late. That, and we have to watch the series finale of Downton Abbey tonight. They have an awful lot of story lines to wrap up.

TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL

(From Praying With the Psalms)

Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.
Psalm 33:20-22

We all need a good “defense system.” We have many to choose from. We can choose to be defended by our nation, its military, and its political system. We can choose to be defended by “emotional devices” that keep other people from getting close to us. Or, we can choose to “relax confidently in God, ‘our help and shield’.”

“Defend me, Almighty God, from every power of sin. As I learn to trust in your care, I find both gladness of heart and peace of mind. ‘Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you’ (Psalm 33:22). Amen.”

(From My Utmost For His Highest)

So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” (John 6:67)

Today’s reading is “The Time of Relapse.”

The question Jesus asks his disciples is penetrating. It comes right on the heels of many other “disciples” turning away from him because of his teaching. They turned away from walking with him. How important is it that we walk with Jesus? “We have to maintain a venturing attitude toward Him all the time.”

“Many today are spending and being spent in work for Jesus Christ, but they do not walk with Him.” While the work is important, the walk is ever so much more important! If God gives us a task or vision, it is not up to us to work to keep ourselves in that relationship. It is up to us to “live a natural life of absolute dependence on Jesus Christ. Never try to live the life with God on any other line than God’s line, and that line is absolute devotion to Him.”

Father, teach me this devotion. I have spent too much time in my life trying to work to keep the vision or relationship going. Show me, by your Spirit, how to live this life of absolute dependence on Christ.

Come, Lord Jesus!

Grace and peace, friends.