High Honor

A high form of encouragement, compliment, honor or one of the kindest things you can say about someone is that they are revealing Christ to others.

Just think how many times someone has lifted your heart to where it needs to be with some unprompted expression of love or kindness. Some give a small or mind-boggling amount of money at just the right time to just the right need and others don't even have to do anything except show up. Yet both, (and others "in-between"), are revealing Christ. I'll never forget a young couple with small children showing up 1/2 hour late for a one-hour meeting. My thinking would have been, "why not just stay home if you are going to be that late?" What courage in HIM and what desire to be with HIM when He said He would be in the midst! They revealed Christ to everyone who was encouraged to see them walk in the door.

So, if you don't have any resources to give, if you don't even have the practical, physical or mental resources inside to encourage with a gift, a helping hand or fitly spoken word, just show up. Busy yourself with revealing Christ to your audience of thousands.

"In the arena with an audience of thousands
Clad in the armor of an army yet unseen
Raging a battle in the emptiness of night
with all your might (til' it's done)"

Poetry excerpt from K. Livgren

Murphy's Law

The dog in the picture is Murphy. Just before he moved, Hannah got a picture of him.

When spring came and that little tree sprouted leaves, Murphy suddenly became obsessed about it. All summer long, he'd go to the tree, bark, jump, hold on with his teeth and drop from it till he was limping and parched. We made fun of him and talked about how his mind just wasn't right.

There never was anything in the tree. We picked him up so he could see from a higher point of view, and it didn't make any difference. You could say he was getting good exercise, but the truth was, he was just wearing his body out while wearing the bark off the tree and the grass off of the ground. Self-destructive behavior.

We do that. Our minds aren't right. We keep thinking there's something that the world has for us and keep grasping for it. When we do, we're just wearing ourselves out, wearing out those around us and being self-destructive.