Holy smokes, it's hot! The temperature in Raleigh today is 106 degrees (but the heat index is only 114--mercy). When you leave the blessed comfort of air conditioning and go outside, a wall of heat slams you nearly to the ground. It truly is oppressive.
And the heat tends to transform otherwise normal, active--even us slightly hyperactive--folks into sluggards. Seriously. This morning, I drove our 15 year old son down to Pinehurst for a practice round for a golf tournament. Now mind you, once we got down there, all I did was sit in the golf cart and drive him around for the round. I didn't hit a single ball or run up any hills or haul any ginormous golf bag on my back. Nope, I just drove a cart around on a golf course.
But I drove around in 100 degree heat with the sun blazing down on us like... well, the Sahara desert comes to mind, only we were on a lovely verdant golf course with ample supplies of water and gatorade and ice and snacks available. I guess that is not a good analogy. My point is, even though it was a beautiful setting, it was still hot hot hot and by the time I drove home this afternoon, I was tired tired tired. I dragged myself inside the house and felt like I had just run a marathon or two. Only all I had done was drive a car and sit in a golf cart (and exclaim enthusiastically, "nice shot!" a trifle too frequently according to said 15 year old son who believes in the "Silence is golden" theory of communication... at least on the golf course... at least with his mom... who can, apparently, unbelievably, be a tiny bit irritating with her loquaciousness. I know, I'm shocked too, since I'm really such a quiet person. I bet you can tell that from my verbosity in this blog. Okay, I'm gonna shut up now. I really am.)
Gee, where on earth was I? See what the heat does to us? But all this brought to mind one of the verses I made the children memorize when they were little: Proverbs 6:6-11 (in the interest of full disclosure, we actually only memorized verse 6) "Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise. Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, she prepares her bread in summer and gathers her food in harvest. How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man."
Some days, we just "feel" like sluggards. My mom's needlepoint pillow expressed it so eloquently: "My get up and go, got up and went." Today definitely could be a sluggard kind of day. But then I think of the industrious little ant and am humbled. How amazing to watch that relentless column of ants on the sidewalk as they march in undulating ranks to gather food and take it back to their colony. No "chief" or "ruler" orders or organizes them--just their Creator placing in them the will and drive to work and gather and not be deterred. He does all things well.
And so I'm reminded afresh that we must be careful not to act based solely upon our feelings. Sure, it's okay to be slug-like every now and then... or at least, I sure hope it is! But I tend to get into trouble when I start thinking and acting based upon how I feel rather than based upon what I believe. I recently read these words from Living the The Cross Centered Life by C.J.Mahaney. "Knowing and wholeheartedly believing the truth will always bring you, in time, to a trustworthy experience of the truth. But if you trust your feelings first and foremost, if you exalt your feelings, if you invest your feelings with final authority--they'll deposit you on the emotional roller coaster which so often characterizes our lives. To exalt and rely on our feelings is what Martin Lloyd-Jones called listening to ourselves instead of talking to ourselves. 'Have you realized,' he observed, 'that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself?'"
So true, isn't it? Every single day, Mahaney, reminds us, "we're faced with two simple choices. We can either listen to ourselves, or we can talk to ourselves about the unchanging truth of who God is and what He's accomplished for us at the cross through His Son Jesus." You know, it really does all boil down to that--and as I shared with my son on the golf course today (when he hit a less-than-stellar shot and declared how badly he was playing)--it applies to every moment of our day, whatever we are doing. Are we listening to ourselves--and complaining or comparing or worrying or resenting--or are we talking to ourselves and reminding ourselves of the unchanging supernatural truth of God's Word? Of His love for us. Of His amazing grace. Of His power and presence and provision. Of His faithfulness. Of His cross.
Stop looking around and start looking up. Stop listening from within and start talking from His Word. Stop acting based upon your feelings and start acting based upon your faith--and declare it, out loud. And on these hot, hazy days, maybe I need look to the ant rather than giving into my feelings of sluggardness!
Lord, when it comes to the truth and what we believe, help us to stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves. To God--the Giver of the supernatural Truth that teaches and transforms us--be all the glory.
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