A little over three years ago, I was overwhelmed by some circumstances that I was dealing with, and determined that I needed to suspend these emails until inspired otherwise, which happened two months later. Today, I am dealing with a new set of concerns, not the least of which is my only brother’s recent diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer. So I informed my granddaughter of my intention to again take some time off, whereupon she wrote me that she “can’t wait for me to start them up again.” Oh, the shame.
So a Bible passage that came to my mind (one that I sometimes want to apply to others, not myself), reads as follows:
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” [Philippians 2:3-4]
Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone lived by that advice. Everyone. Talk about defunding the police-we wouldn’t even need the police! No more murders or assaults or stealing. But I don’t see that scenario happening on this side of the Second Coming of Jesus. So what do we see today?
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…” [II Timothy 3:1-4]
The choice of lifestyles could hardly be clearer. We can be ‘lovers of ourselves’ and try to get ahead that way. After all, isn’t that what everybody is doing? Not everybody. God’s remnant knows that His advice on living a life that is pleasing to Him is to ‘consider others better than yourself’.
So thank you, Ella Grace, for shaming me into doing another email. In the near future, I will likely be taking some time off as I have a couple of early-summer travel plans in the works, but I’ll take it one week at a time. After all, I’m not the one in charge.
Blessings,
–Keith