Things I Think About

Three thoughts I’d scribbled down over the past few months:

Does dying young sometimes mean God is so pleased with your service on earth, that He is bringing you home to heaven early? I’ve often wondered this, but have never heard anyone else talk about it. People like Dan Dehaan and Keith Green come to mind. Jenny. Steve Norman. Andrew Evans. But what about the converse of that thought: God isn’t finished working through those living long lives. Is that good or bad? Which is better?

This spring Andy preached from Acts 15 on how the message of Jesus should be kept simple. NP was created for people who had grown weary of going to church. At work my Christian co-worker had a perfect opportunity to share with a non-Christian coworker, who had asked a question about the Bible. It was as if the ball were sitting there on a tee for him to hit. At first the Christian did a wonderful job sharing the message of Christ. While he shared I prayed, and I almost cried that the opportunity had come off so well. But the Christian went on and on, eventually adding how worshippers shouldn’t talk about things like sports in church hallways on Sunday morning. That’s ”complicating” the Gospel.

Of course, I contributed little.

With life being so busy, how many still keep Sunday as a day of rest and worship? If you do, in today’s frantic society you seem to fall further and further behind. With baseball finally not taking up so much of our time, we are finally getting weekends, and Sundays, back. Many times I feel like I’m wasting the day by sitting around watching a game. Conversely, the feeling of accomplishment that comes from weekend yardwork, chores, washing the car, or folding and ironing laundry is so fulfilling that it hardly seems like work. The Lord will bless those who keep the Sabbath, right?