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Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don't squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us, I heard your call in the nick of time; The day you needed me, I was there to help. Don't put it off; don't frustrate God's work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we're doing. Our work as God's servants gets validated - or not - in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we're telling the truth, and when God's showing his power; when we're doing our best setting things right; when we're praised, and when we're blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all. Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! (2 Corinthians 6:11-13)
Good day dear Friend! May this find you in a place where God's voice can speak lovingly and openly to you. May all the cares and worries of yesterday cease to bother you today. Listen to God's voice, learn to recognize it, and learn to be blessed and guided by it.
Our youngest grandchild lives in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. Yet, must of her early education has been coming from England. The other day when she was visiting, she talked to her grandma and me about sending us something in the post. And we received it yesterday. "Post?" I asked. She gave me the look every grandchild gives to their grandfather at least once that says it all: Grandpa, I thought you were smarter than this! Her favorite show is Peppa Pig, a show from England. It has allowed our baby girl to say the number four like someone on the streets of London, as well as other words which amuse us. You could say that even at three years old, she's living "openly and expansively." The cares and worries that most grown ups have, are not hers yet; and my prayer is that they will never overwhelm her or any of our little ones ever. Yet, here we are. We're human and we worry. And it seems like we sometimes forget Whose we are, and what we have become because of Jesus Christ. Our attitude towards life should be like children; life is marvelous more so because we see with Christ's eyes; "in the nick of time" God heard our pleas and rescued us. His strength is that which allows us to face the truly difficult days that may come into our lives.
The Apostle Paul lives a marvelous life even though as he shares the list of things he endured, we shake our heads and wonder how he was able to survive it all. But Jesus was so important, so central to his life, that nothing else mattered. Jesus when He called Paul revealed to him all he was to suffer, and Paul still said yes. "Hard times, tough times, bad times," - Yes Lord, if Thou goes with me. "When we're beaten up, jailed, and mobbed," - yes Lord, if Thou goes with me. "Working hard, working late, working without eating" - Yes Lord, if Thou goes with me. "With pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love - all of this because He is with us. Dear one, did I happen to share a word with which you identify this morning? Then, leave the constricted places behind and enter into the "wide-open, spacious life" that is ours through Jesus Christ. Dear Reader, if you feel a smallness about life, or feel hemmed or boxed in, that's you that's sharing that with you! Paul said it best, "You're living (life) in a small way... Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!"
That's good news!
PRAYER: Loving God, bless this dear reader with all that we have read above, and please include me as well. Remove the restrains, open wide the jail doors of the prisons we have made for ourselves and let us be the people You called us to be. Remove the smallness of thinking and belief; grant to us the faith of a trusting child, and let us live big! In Christ Jesus we pray and live, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Today, we shall be big!
Eradio Valverde
