Hide & Seek

The financial crisis of the world has a lot of people worrying about their invested money in the stock market. It’s definitely a gamble to put it there in the first place, and twice the gamble to allow someone else to manage it for you. Personally I don’t have that kind of money, so my worrying won’t do any good. If you’re a worrier, here are a few thoughts to consider. Worry is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere! Blessed is the man who is too busy to worry in the daytime, and too sleepy to worry at night. I once heard of a man who worried so much about his debts the hair began to fall out of his toupee. I never thought I’d ever be happy to see gasoline prices at $2.00 a gallon. Because people throughout our country have become more conscientious about their excessive driving habits, the overall miles driven per vehicle has dropped dramatically, bringing the price of unsought gasoline down with it. Now that you know what can happen with the price of gas because of our selfish guzzling of oil products, are you going to continue practicing your conservative ways or are you going to return to your uncaring, foolish, wasteful ways? We’ve got a long way to go before the financial woes of the world stabilize, but not learning from our mistakes is something I do worry about. It’s so easy to fall back into the selfish “me” syndrome when life appears to be getting easier. Careful, that snake might just bite you again.
In a restaurant, the elderly gentleman had just been served his food, and he bowed his head to offer a silent thanks. To the young hooligans at the adjoining table, this was a very funny thing to observe. One of them, needing to show off for his peers, waited for the gentleman to raise his head, then sarcastically yelled out, “Hey Pops! Do they all do that where you come from?” The old man answered, “No son. The pigs don’t!”
The Bible class teacher was telling the Old Testament story of how Lot’s wife “looked back” while running away from the destruction of Sodom, disobeying God’s directive to not look back, and suddenly turned into a pillar of salt. Little Susie piped up, “My mother looked back once while she was driving and turned into a telephone pole.”
[Ephesians 5: 8-21] In hard times people seek the favors of God and in many cases what they faithfully seek, they find, and their life is changed forever. With others a relationship with God is like a game of hide and seek. Do you remember playing hide and seek as a child? Just before dark, when the shadows were long, was the best time to play. If you were “it”, your job was to find those who were hiding and finding someone was always rewarding. If it got too dark to roam around looking, whoever was “it” would call out, “Ally, Ally in free”, signaling those who were still hiding in the dark that they could come out of hiding and return home without penalty where we enjoyed each others company until we were beckoned to come in the house by mom at bedtime. Many people seek God in time of need, but soon return to the shadows and darkness of the world seeking self once again. What they’re doing in the shadows isn’t pleasing to God and as long as they stay in the darkness, they cannot have fellowship with God. You can “come home free” in Jesus. Live in the light as He is in the light and have fellowship with Him. This world is scheduled for destruction. If you keep looking back into the darkness you could be lost forever. Don’t wait too long. God is looking for you now.