This has been a sleepless week, and I lay in bed sometimes wondering why. Sometimes God kicks my memory, and I remember something that is important. I woke up yesterday and felt like I needed to look carefully at a reading, so I did. I saw nothing so I browsed around and this popped up.

1 Cor 1:26-31

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters.
Not many of you were wise by human standards,
not many were powerful,
not many were of noble birth.
Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise,
and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong,
and God chose the lowly and despised of the world,
those who count for nothing,
to reduce to nothing those who are something,
so that no human being might boast before God.
It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus,
who became for us wisdom from God,
as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption,
so that, as it is written,
Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.

If I wrote this in a truly humble way, I would never use the word “I,” but the story won’t let flow that way. I have a friend. His name is Gil. I have not seen Gil physically for over 20 years, but it takes only a phone call to feel totally connected again. Gil and I were the same rank and deployed once together in the same unit so I ended up getting to know him much better in nine months playing IFOR games in Operation Joint Endeavor than I would have gotten to know him just being at work with him for the previous three years. Gil was a former enlisted officer like me and came from humble beginnings …. Like me. Gil is a deeply religious man and was dedicated to ideals of the Army. The Army has rules for everyone and everything. We often say that there is the right way, the wrong way, and the Army way. Gil would follow rules for everything because he wanted to be that right example. He never stated it. He just did it and if there was no Army rule for something, he would follow what would Jesus do. Why is this important? Because if you live, sleep, and work with two others for nine months in a 12’x12’ room with no doorknobs, everything can, if you let it, be a learning experience.  People that know me will acknowledge that I am not as humble as I want to be or should be. Imagine me before.  My humble beginning helped to make some insecurities. Gil showed me how to grow. Gil taught me most of the humble that I do have by simply doing it. A quiet, and very large man, Gil had many skills and much knowledge.  I truly believe that he was the example in my life that I was looking for to give me my push back to Christ.  One of my soldiers told me that she thought that I was an arrogant ass, but I had seemed to change.  Thanks be to God for sending Gil.

The Book of Corinthians is part of Paul’s life travels and the letters that he wrote for them. This scripture is about our life travels. Boast in the Lord. When it is presented that way, it comes so much easier to be humble and forgiving. If you are boasting in the Lord, you don’t have time to boast about yourself.  Remember, every living creature has been blessed by God. We all have a place and a purpose – even if it is not clear. God is in control of our place in life. Just like the picture of the man leaning on the shovel. The caption says “God is in control. That doesn’t mean that you should lean on a shovel and pray a hole.”  Through prayer and thought we can learn to forgive one another. So, the next time your roommate irritates you by being 25 minutes late or not picking up something in the hallway – forgive them. “Forgive as God forgave you”. It is not our place to judge – that is God’s place. It is the wrongs that we do that are the actions for which we are judged. Just like in the movie Courageous – You can have a million good things that you have done, but it only takes one bad thing to be judged bad. If you kill someone, but have been good all your life, do you think that God should judge you as a good person? He would be a bad judge if he said that it is okay to have killed someone since you were always good before. If you do a bad deed, he can forgive you (or anyone), BUT YOU MUST ASK for his forgiveness. In that same idea, those bothersome people in your life might need you to help them experience God’s true plan for them. It might also be that you need them to develop your own patience and to understand God’s love. So don’t ignore the bothersome ones. Ask God to help you to accept them as one of God’s living creatures. God has given us all a calling. Paul says three times here that God chose you. This scripture tells me something and I hope does for you too.

The interesting part of this scripture is the context.  It is important to read the entire chapter. The verses before were actually about boasting about your leaders……

PRAYER FOR TODAY:

Lord, today, I ask for a different kind of strength. I ask for the strength to always boast in you. Lord, I want to allow You to work in my life through all of life’s circumstances – even the unpleasant ones. Teach me to love with Your love and forgive others as you would have us do. AMEN.