The Slurry Wall

            Last week I was listening to an extraordinary NPR interview with Daniel Libeskind.   He is the architect chosen as the master planner for the new World Trade Center reconstruction project in New York.  Daniel tells of his trek 75 feet down to the bedrock where he was able to touch the huge slurry wall.   He described the experience this way, “that's the retaining wall, that's a dam that is holding back the pressures of the Hudson River.  If that wall had collapsed,(on 9/11)  all the subways would have been fried.  It would have been an apocalypse.”  

            I couldn’t help thinking about God’s amazing hand of protection.  Each day, He saves each of us from the flood of horrific consequences our sins deserve.   That must be why we are instructed so many times in the New Testament to pray for one another.   Even in the Old Testament we see Abraham interceding for the sinful city of Sodom.  When Miriam became jealous and spoke against Moses we see him interceding on her behalf and the leprosy was healed!  An then there was Samuel who’s intercession saved his people from the Philistines.    

            Who knows what calamities God has saved our nation from because of the faithful prayers of his people.   Be that Slurry Wall for God.   Through your prayers hold back the pressures that war against our society, city, and church.   Have a great evening.

“Products of Our Expectations”

                As a Psychology major I grew up thinking that about eighty percent of who we became was determined by our environment and about twenty percent resulted from genetics.  Then I became an adoptive parent and re-evaluated my conclusion.   Just a few years back, I began teaching in children’s church and learned I was wrong again.  We aren’t mere products of genetics or our environment.  Instead, I discovered each of us are most shaped by our expectations and the hopes others have for us.           

                In 1 Corinthians 1: 7-10 we find the apostle asking, “What soldier has to pay his own expenses? What farmer plants a vineyard and doesn’t have the right to eat some of its fruit? What shepherd cares for a flock of sheep and isn’t allowed to drink some of the milk? ⁸ Am I expressing merely a human opinion, or does the law say the same thing? ⁹ For the law of Moses says, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.” Was God thinking only about oxen when he said this? ¹⁰ Wasn’t he actually speaking to us? Yes, it was written for us, so that the one who plows and the one who threshes the grain might both expect a share of the harvest.”

                What are the deeds and acts you have been engaging in?  Are you expecting a return on your investment of time, blood, sweat, and tears?   You should.   Remember, our expectation is not in the amount of faith we have or even what actions we perform.  In Luke 17: 5-6, Jesus reminds us that even if our faith is only as tiny as a mustard seed it has the power to accomplish what we tell it to do.  Keep holding out faith regardless of what you see happening around you.   “Faith expects from God with is beyond all expectation.” (Andrew Muray).   Have a Blessed Day.

Margins

          When I write reports I’ve never been good with setting margins or knowing the correct amount of spacing for my headers and footers.  That’s why I was so thankful when I started using a computer and these were preset for me.   As a Writer we’re always told to us to leave more white space.   You know shorter paragraphs or anything else that shows more of the blank space.  Nothing turns a reader off more than a bunch of words crammed together on a page. 

          This week, I was thinking about white space and proper margins when it comes to our daily lives.   Have I been structuring my days to make sure they are aligned as they should be?  Do I allow adequate time for family, work, prayer, friends, meditation, and rest?   It’s so easy for me so fall out of bed and jump into the demands of life cramming something into every second of my existence.   That type of unbalanced living would resemble a sheet of instructions we might receive when purchasing something that has to be assembled.   If I’m not careful I know my life will start to look like a bunch of mind-numbing words stuffed together on a small sheet of paper which could have even been written in another language.

          Margins help us evaluate our capacities.   By apportioning our time in the correct amounts we can set realistic boundaries for our time and activities.   What types of margins have you constructed for your life?   Are they expanding your sense of freedom, health, and sense of well-being?   Even people in ministry have a problem with getting the margins right.   Above all else, let’s not forget Andrew Bonar’s warning:

           “One of the gravest perils which besets the ministry is a restless scattering of energies over an amazing multiplicity of interests which leaves no margin of time and of strength for receptive and absorbing communion with God.”