Ever Feel Like The Missing Tool?
October 19, 2017
Dale & Jeannie Daly
One of our sons, father of two, and lead of California’s Sheriff Department SWAT Team once said: “It seems like only yesterday the biggest decision I had to make in life was whether to swing on the swing, or slide down the slide. Now today…”
Today, life is much different than when the majority of readers of this CRA Moment were young. Compare today’s new car manual with words of Malcolm Gladwell writing in Car and Driver magazine. “The first automobile, in the early 1900’s, were a headache. The tool kit of the 1907 Pierce Arrow included, ominously, an extra set of intake and exhaust valves. Cars needed weekly oil changes. One manual of the period suggested that drivers have on hand, among other things, a small pipe wrench, a pair of gas pipe pliers, large and small, screwdrivers, a pair of flat-nosed pliers, a small hammer, a pair of wire cutters, a large jackknife, half-round and three-cornered files, a roll of sticky tape, a chisel, a coil of soft iron, a monkey wrench, a few links of extra chain, a piece of asbestos for making gaskets, cans of oil and grease, and extra plugs.”
How about when it comes to thinking about God’s love for you as an individual? Let’s bypass how you may feel on Sunday morning when you attend church and are surrounded by those who rarely see or come into contact with you except for that brief time on Sunday morning. What about when you don’t know why God loves you in the first place. For all of us it’s easy to doubt His love at times, but I’m referring to those times much deeper. How do you feel when some of the thoughts you’ve had during the course of the day were little more than gutter-level, or when you allowed your mouth to overload your brain, and words came out that put another person down? Oh! You really didn’t mean it, however completely opposite of the old saying I can find from an American periodical with a largely black audience in The Christian Recorder of March 1862. “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” Most will recall that to be a run-of-the-mill response to verbal bullying in school playgrounds. It may sound a little antiquated these days and no doubt has been overtaken by a more streetwise comeback, however, such a saying still came straight out of the pit of the evil one, and it does hurt!
How do you feel about God’s love for you when you’ve acted like a jerk? Or, when you’ve snapped at someone before your brain was in gear? Or, how about when you’ve awakened in the morning so filled with faith, and then almost before breakfast time you’re faced with a challenge that leaves you feeling almost without an ounce of faith and nearly shaking in your tennis shoes? How does God feel about you then? And what about when bad things happen…does God care then? Does He still love you in the midst of all your fears? And then what about those times when danger lurks behind nearly every and bush? Ever asked, or had the thought of has He stopped loving me?
As you read this CRA Moment perhaps you feel like your life’s toolbox is filled with every imaginable tool except one! The very one you are needing, which then causes you to sum up your life in a similar way, as being a tool missing from God’s toolbox of useful and necessary items needed in the world today. Maybe you feel like you’ve drifted too far or too long. Maybe slipped too many times, or waited too long to be of any use by God, or for yourself for that matter.
If so, Paul has some comforting words to offer right now as you read this Moment.“Who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One Who died for us---who was raised to life for us---is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness; not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture. None of these faze us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing---nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable to unthinkable---absolutely NOTHING (caps & underline mine) can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus has embraced us” (Romans 8:35-39 The Message).
Believe, accept this, and receive His love and forgiveness into your life and you’ll then find the most important ‘tool’ is right there in your personal tool box.
Blessings,
Psalm 20:7
Dale & Jeannie
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