Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content
with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU
NOR FORSAKE YOU (Heb 13:5).
Last year, Beverly and I were going out for a boat ride on the
Tennessee River. The boat we would be riding in was being stored not at a boat
slip but in an airplane hangar, only in the South, right? You might just be a
redneck if you store your boat in an aircraft hangar! The boat was sharing a
berth with a helicopter! It was supposed to rain around 3 PM that day, so we
got out on the river early on Saturday. All we were going to do was find a
place to anchor and just “bob” in the water away from the main channel and
fellowship for a couple of hours; then, we would be out of there and heading
home.
The place that was selected to hang out for a few hours was
known as Eldridge Slough! Now, I grew up around the Florida Everglades; so
naturally, this didn’t in the least resemble any slough to me that I knew, and
the water was not stagnant, and best of all, unlike Florida, it was free of
alligators. We didn’t bring any rafts or inner tubes, but there were these
solid 1.5″ thick, brightly colored foam floats less than 4´in length, and cut
in the shape of a person’s torso.
The shoulders were small, the waist was narrow, and the hips
were wider than the shoulders. It was tricky to get on this foam torso and even
more challenging to stay on it. I tried without success, but it didn’t help
that I had lathered my body with 100% sunscreen. I was unreasonably expecting
this floating torso to hold on to a greased pig.
After several attempts, I gave up on the skinny torso float! I
was tired of it shooting out from between my greasy legs. So, what I wound up
doing was the Billy-Bob thing by inverting a lifejacket and inserted my legs
through the armholes, and clipped the straps to keep me somewhat upright,
allowing me to bob around in the water without too much effort. Funny thing, it
looked as if I was wearing a floating diaper!
The water was refreshing with the heat bearing down on us like
an iron trying to get the creases out of us! We must have bobbed for 4 hours!
It had to be some kind of record for me; I don’t like bobbing! In my younger
years, I would have been bored out of my gourd, but I stayed in the water the
whole time while at the slough. My lifejacket converted into a Billy-Bob float
worked perfectly and kept this greased pig in the water without drowning!
What was particularly refreshing was the occasional
undercurrents of cooler water just below the knees passing our way. It was
intermittent and always changing locations. Your feet picked up on the cool
sensation then you made your move to stay in it as long as possible; the
searing heat that day helped us to appreciate these cooler moments. The slough
was definitely the place to be for Billy-bobbing.
I am a cloud gazer; so, the cumulus clouds were magnificent to
look at on that day while rain bands circled all around us but never paid us a
welcoming visit while we were on the river since we were all sun-pressed and
already wet, to boot! Several Ospreys were nesting on a nearby island by the
slough. They were a sight to behold.
Beverly grew up on the Tennessee River. It’s in her blood; it
was an integral part of her upbringing. It was a joy to see her in her element!
Sometimes we forget how the simplest of things when we were young that brought
us so much joy before we un-simplified our lives by growing up and willfully
trading our serenity and sanity for pressure and stress in the pursuit of the
things of this world (cf. Eccl 1:2).
I like creature comforts like any sensible person, but in
chasing after comfort, we must be careful not to find ourselves getting into
uncomfortable situations by getting caught up in buying into the world’s
relentless pursuit of attainment. It is a fractured view of worth and happiness,
yes?
In this never-ending rat race this side of eternity, there is no
lack of satanic cheese in the myriad of devilish traps for the rat-runners. I
cannot believe that someone came up with the idea that the person who wins in
life is the one who dies with the most toys! This is nothing but an expression
of a worldview that is nothing more than futile and empty! It’s a dead-end
trap. What a dreary ambition for a worldview on life: perspire, possess, pass
on!
On our way home, Beverly and I reflected on our trip to the
river. It was definitely different and very slow-paced. It was a good change-up
for us to totally disengage from the usual routine of things. Variation is the
spice of life; they say (whoever they are). We thanked the Lord for our time
together with family members and Billy-Bobbing! In all things give thanks, yes
(1 Thes 5:18)?
What we noticed while on the river there was the usual high
degree of activity. I am sure those boaters, skiers, jet skiers, and fishermen
were all attempting to disengage from the previous week as much as possible as
we were. It served as a relief from the hectic routine of life. But the river
had its own hecticness! We were all out there feeding an insatiable desire for
more comfort and pleasure stuffed into this small window that we call the
weekend or life for that matter (cf. Psa 39:5; Jas 4:14; 1 Jn 2:17). At times
it is like a zoo, and you have to laugh at the absurdity of it all!
It is analogous to us being like a dog chasing its tail, rocking
in a rocking chair, or bobbing in the water; we are in a repetitive motion and
going nowhere but in circles, back and forth, or up and down. All the while, we
are working that much harder to pursue those things that give us some semblance
of decompression from the stress-filled week, if only for a fleeting moment of
time.
We find ourselves working harder at having fun, but relaxation and rejuvenation still elude us by the end of the weekend. Have you ever felt the need to take a
vacation after coming back from a vacation? In the back of our minds, we know
that dreaded Monday-itis is inevitable, and it remains in the back of our
minds. While in school, it was like putting off homework until Sunday night;
you know it’s coming. When Monday hits, we are already planning for the next
weekend getaway – “Everybody is living for the weekend.” It is a sad testament
to the TGIF-mentality. So much for carpe diem or seize the day.
My Dad once told me that if you live from Friday to Friday your
life will be over in a heartbeat! The first lub-dub is the sound of the mitral
and tricuspid valves closing; the second lubdub is the sound of the aortic and
pulmonary valves closing. With that lubdub, lub-dub, my life has sped by before
my eyes with a lubdub, figuratively speaking! Life goes by so fast,
yes?
Now, I am considered ancient of days to all of those young
whippersnappers out there! Their day is coming if the Lord wills. Concerning
the fleeting of days, my ninety-three old Dad will confirm, “Where did the
years go?” He asked that rhetorically in my presence while shaking his head at
sixty-three! Those thirty years ago were gone in a heartbeat!
You know; there is nothing wrong with having things for the
believer. But in that pursuit, we should first ask ourselves why we feel we
have to have this or that; in other words, is it God’s will for us to buy it?
Or how about should we go here or there (wherever here or there is)? A second consideration would
be this; will the purchased item/s have a negative impact on my relationship
with Yahweh? I have this impression that neither one of these questions is
entertained while in purchase mode or traveling mode. We are making sensory
decisions not spiritual ones when prayer is not involved.
God knows that not every believer can handle responsibly having
a lot of money which is why not every believer is allowed to be rich; their
lives would be destroyed by prosperity. Being rich is not a litmus test for
spirituality, by the way! I often think of that poor widow who gave to the
treasury of the temple all that she had: two copper coins (two lepta,
worth ~1/8 of a cent each, BKC) in Jesus’ day (Lk 21:2-4). Today, it would be
like someone putting 2 cents in the offering plate or bucket. “What good will
that do?” You might ask. To Jesus, it meant everything,
(Lk 21:3) So He said, Truly I say to you that this poor
widow has put in more than all; (Lk 21:4) for
all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of
her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.
Proponents of a prosperity gospel would have to declare that her
faith was small. <><
