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My Two Cents
by Rev Chuck Behrens
July, 2013
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Past Articles |
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I happened to be there when
my friend, Rick, tried a Jet Ski for the first time. Now, you may have
seen those little water machines that look kind of like a baby snowmobile,
and they are a lot of fun. But it takes some skill to stay balanced on
them as they start to take off across the water. Rick actually handled it
pretty well for a while; he's a good water skier, and that didn't surprise
me. But it was inevitable that he would eventually fall off. I expected
that when he hit the water, that Jet Ski was going to take right off
without him across the water. I wondered how he'd ever get back! It didn't
happen. That Jet Ski is designed to start going in a circle near you, and
it did, and it circles until you can get back on. Well, that's exactly
what you need when you fall off.
I love Lamentations chapter 3, verse 19. Now, you probably were not
discussing Lamentations over breakfast this morning, but Jeremiah wrote
it. It follows his long book that's named after him. Of course, he's a
great man of God, but he's a great man of God who knew about failure too.
In fact, here's what he says; maybe some things you and I can relate to.
I'm sure we can. Beginning with Lamentations 3:19 and then ending with a
phrase that you may have sung in church many times. "I remember my
affliction in my wandering..." Can you relate to that? He says, "the
bitterness and the gall. I well remember them." See his mind is playing
back failures. "My soul is downcast within me," he says. "This really gets
me depressed," in other words. "Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I
have hope." Okay, the sun's coming up now. "Because of the Lord's great
love, we are not consumed, for His compassion’s never fail. They are new
every morning. Great is your faithfulness."
Jeremiah is reflecting on times when even the most committed of us
believers fall off, so to speak, as my friend fell off that Jet Ski. And
he captures the feelings very well. "When I fail my Lord I feel
discouraged, I feel depressed, sometimes like, 'What's the use?' But every
new day, every morning His compassion does not fail, His mercies are new
every morning. Every new day I find my Lord circling near me to pick me up
even though I fell off."
The prophet Zephaniah says, "Every new day, He does not fail." Yes, when I
looked at how that Jet Ski operated, I couldn't help but think of how our
Lord deals with us. It could be that even now you're feeling crushed by a
feeling of failure; you've let your Lord down, you've let yourself down,
and you've let other people down. And maybe you feel like you're just
going to stay down. In fact, at times like these your feelings are telling
you, "Hey, you fell off! And you know what? The Lord's going on without
you, buddy!" Wrong. "His mercies are new every morning." Jeremiah said,
"My hope is every new day is a new start. Great (He says of God) is Your
faithfulness." Not great is our faithfulness; great is Your faithfulness,
Lord. So, no failure needs to last more than 24 hours. Because there's a
new day, and there's new mercies.
Today your Lord is there, circling faithfully. See, He stopped when you
fell off, and He's been lovingly waiting to pick you up and to get you off
to a fresh new start.
See you in Church,
Rev Chuck
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