Mark Spruill

Perhaps I need to be less concerned about doing more FOR God, and more concerned about doing everything WITH God.

I’m taking a big risk today, living life on the wild side, throwing caution to the wind, and doing something absolutely crazy.   I took my precious cell phone out of its case and left the house with it unprotected.  That’s right.  As I write this, my cell phone is sitting on the table at Wendy’s with no case, no rubber cover, not even a screen protector. It’s wierd.  I feel vulnerable and liberated at the same time.  The screen is so smooth and bright.  The phone feels so sleek and light in my hand.  It slips in my pocket like it’s coated in butter.  I love it.

Do you ever think about how strange it is that we shop for the sleekest, nicest aluminum-framed bright-screened phone then promply engulf it in a giant rubber encasement and a screen dulling plastic film?  We do it because it’s precious to us.  We don’t want to damage it.  So instead, we don’t allow ourselves to enjoy half the qualities that made it precious to us in the first place.  It reminds me of Ecclesiastes.

I’ve been reading the book of Ecclesiastes lately, and I think it could be summarized like this:  Cell phones wear out. All cell phones break sooner or later.  Enjoy it while you have it.  Make the most of it.  Use it to the max.  But treat it like it belongs to God, because it really does.  And look to God to provide something even better when this cell phone dies.

The Bible is full of examples where God saved people from evil intensions, rescued people, conquered armies, etc.  My problem is that I often don’t recognize my personal battles as modern day versions of the same thing  The book of Psalms is full of scriptures about how the Lord will vindicate, rescue, deliver, help to conquer . . .  but do I realize that applies to me?  He can rescue me from the evil person who is battling me on the job, at the office, in the market place and community, just like he rescued David from the evil people that wanted to take his life.

This doesn’t mean that bad things will never happen to me in life. But I do think that the principles of victory in the Bible apply to me just like they did for David or Samson or Paul. My adversary may be called George instead of Goliath but my God is the same yesterday today and forever.

It seems like it’s been raining in Atlanta for a month.  Truthfully, it’s only been about a week of rainy days.  But when sky’s are grey and the rain won’t stop, sunshine seems like afar away memory.

A week of daily downpours has our yard a muddy mess.  The ground can’t soak up any more water.  The grass is being washed away and we almost have a swamp in our back yard.  We’ve had a lot of rain.  But what we haven’t had, is a wet basement.  I am very thankful for the dry basement.

In times past, this much rain would have surely caused a small lake to form in my den.  This year, at least so far, we have avoided it.  For sure God’s grace and mercy is involved, but I think He has also helped me avoid it by other means.  Namely, hardship, experience, and preparation.  

The hardship of drying out a basement multiple times over the years has taught me several things.  The first is that drying out a basement is a real pain in the butt, so I don’t want to do it if I don’t have to. The second is that I have to be diligent about preparation.  I can’t procrastinate.  If the gutters are full of leaves and overflowing, and if downspouts and landscaping don’t send the water away from the house, I’m in trouble.  

This year, I’ve been on the roof cleaning gutters several times, even once or twice in the rain.  It beats dealing with a flooded basement any day.  But it’s really hard to make myself do it sometimes.  Especially if there is no rain in the forecast.  Here’s a word of advice: Sooner or later, there is always rain in the forecast.  Do yourself a favor.  Fix the gutters while the sun is shining.

Sometimes on pretty days  I like to take my lunch and go to the park.  Yesterday was such a day.  I sat in my car with the windows down, munching on lunch and enjoying the view out the front windshield.  My peaceful gaze at nature was suddenly interrupted by an intruding wasp that flew in the open driver’ side window, then insisted on trying to escape out the front windshield. In the past, such an intrusion by a potentially painful perpetrator would have caused panick and urgent desire to escape from the vehicle.  Now that I am more “experienced,” I tried to remain calm and figure a plan of action.

My first reaction was to look around for something to swat it with.  Then I thought that might just make it mad, so I looked for somehting to smoosh it with.  But I needed sometthing thick enough that the stinger couldn’t exact dying revenge for the doomed wasp.  As the wasp kept bumping his head against the windshield, trying what it perceived was the most obviousd route of escape, I spied a small blanket within reach in the back seat. I could smoosh it dead with that but. . .

Then a thought occured to me.  I got out of the car, and threw the blanket over the outside of the windshield, blocking the view for the wasp.  He promptly flew out the side window.  I snatched the blanket off the windshield and got back in the car with a grin on my face.  I had outsmarted a wasp, and saved him from destruction in the process.

Now I have no special love for wasps.  Best I can tell, they have caused me more pain in life than blessing.  But I confess that I don’t know all the waspy ways of God’s creation.  What I do know is that in this specific instance, I felt some small tinge of joy in the act of setting a wasp rightly on his way.  And if I can do that for a simple minded wasp, perhaps I should trust that God can do that for me.

There are times in my life when, just like that wasp, I am doing my best to go in what appears to be the right direction but I keep bumping my head against an invisible wall.  As the difficulties mount, I redouble my efforts and keep trying to do what is right, even while wondering, is this really the right direction?  Is the devil trying to discourage me? Or does God want me to go another way?  Only recently am I starting to rest in the truth that God really is in control and He loves me too much to let a humble submissive heart go in the wrong direction. He is way smarter than me. And if I can figure out how to redirect a poor little wasp who is desperately trying to go the right direction, surely the God of all creation, knowing my heart, can and will get me redirected and moving in the way I should go.  

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been prevented by the Holy Spirit from speaking the message in the province of Asia.  When they came to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them to do this,  so they passed through Mysia and went down to Troas.

Acts 16:6‭-‬8 NET