Weekly Devotion

They were leaving the harbor as they approached the Sound, and he described it as a perfect late summer sunset. The lighting was so dramatic he claimed God must have painted it. Not long after, we were told about ominous, dark storm clouds rushing towards their boat. The storm was upon them so fast they didn’t have time to turn around and make it out of the sound in time.

When I take the time to pray and reflect, I’m reminded that they are just things. Worship the Creator, not the created, I learn.

“So at times in my life, whether I was going through the difficulties of Army Ranger school or being deployed, or whether it’s through kids’ sicknesses, those were times when God has reminded me that, ‘Hey (J), you think you’re in control? It’s all an illusion.’ Those are times when God says, ‘I’m the one who’s in control, and you really need to look to me for answers in good times and bad times.’”

Sometimes on Facebook I’ll infinitely scroll, looking for one funny, memorable, or newsworthy prize after another, only to realize I’ve just wasted 30 minutes doing nothing. This time was different. My friend doesn’t post whimsical or provocative things. She’s authentic and going through real things now, battling cancer for the second time.

For years, one of my friends has asked my wife, Jennie, what her story or testimony is. Not every believer has an earth-shattering, lightning strike, bottom-of-the-barrel experience, but if we have a relationship with Jesus, we have a story to tell.

God’s love is abundant. It’s evident from a friend’s hug to a loved one’s tears. We might think no, no, no, this is our love, but God’s love permeates every relationship we have. The clay pot can’t decide what to be on its own; the potter creates it for the specific purpose He has in mind.

Unlike God, I didn’t have the patience and wisdom to handle the situation as I should have, but like a loving father, I also realized its insignificance in our relationship and reached out to her.

I knew how to sail from sailing a sunfish around the bay for years as a kid. While I’m no expert, the principles are basic. Knowing the direction of the wind and putting myself between the wind and the sail is all I needed to remember.  Applying this principle to windsurfing made a world of difference. To learn and progress, I had to do one thing before I could do another. This is equally true when it comes to knowing the will of God. We can’t know His will if we don’t first walk with Him.

Alignment is the process of adjusting the angles of our vehicle’s wheels to be perpendicular to the ground and parallel to each other. Our spiritual lives should also be perpendicular to the ground — pointing upwards to God, not horizontally.

“Because he was from Oklahoma, the Yankee great Mickey Mantle was my favorite person. Every year, when we started a new season, we all argued over who got to be number seven — Mickey’s number,” my Oklahoman friend (B) told me.