It is strange what time does.  I’m a six-year-old kid being kicked out of the dentist’s office. Whatever I did to cause such an eruption I don’t remember.  My mother was informed in no uncertain terms that she was to remove her son from his office.

As time processes things, forty some years transpired. He is now on a gurney in an ambulance being transported to a trauma center. The paramedic caring for him had a memory return from some deep, forgotten recesses of the mind. You guessed it, I was that caregiver.

I could have taken out a syringe, squirted out some saline in front of him, and then told him the story of a kid that was kicked out of a dentist’s office some forty years ago. Of course, you know I didn’t do that. I gave him the best of care like I did with all my patients.

My belief is that God causes these situations to happen to reveal to us that we are not what we used to be.  We have been renewed as a result of the blood of Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Think about it.

Gary

Our grandson had the leading part in “Aesop Fables” in Memphis, Tennessee, as a fifth grader. We had to make a special trip to be in the audience to watch this performance. I just want to say he was very engaged and outshined any professional actor; I’m not just making that statement because he was my grandson.  The girl who played Rabbit would have been in close competition.

I was very proud of him but much prouder the following day. We were walking in the neighborhood when a woman passing by in a car shouted, “Hey, Aesop.” He just put his head down and didn’t seem to want the recognition or to talk about it. Our grandson showed humility, and for me there was nothing that could make me prouder of him.

Humility is a great quality which the Bible refers to many times.

1 Peter 5:5

Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”

Think about it.

Gary

The old Christian man was asked what his favorite genre of music was. With a smile and a twinkle in his eye he stated, “rock and roll.” The inquirer was taken back and asked for an explanation.

In reply he stated, “Rock of ages cleft for me let me hide myself in Thee” and “when the roll is called up yonder, I’ll be there.”

These are two of the greatest hymns in our Christian music heritage.

Colossians 3:16

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

I guess the Word of God dwelt in him richly, led to a healthy heart and came out of his mouth.

Give it some thought.

Gary

Driving down the interstate alone in my pickup, I noticed a cross and some flowers in the ditch. This tribute to someone caught my eye. My memory from years back was triggered and I saw the scene in my mind clearly.

It was a bright, cloudless day in early summer and I was returning as a paramedic from a critical transport to Eastern Maine Medical Center. I saw the emergency vehicles with lights flashing in the distance.  My emergency lights were activated and we pulled over to the side to assist the EMT’s on the scene. A conscious young man was being evaluated about thirty feet from the highway and I noticed a van some distance in the woods.  I entered the crash scene to find a Good Samaritan doing CPR while a medic was in the process of hooking up a heart monitor and defibrillator on a young woman.  Working together, we soon realized our efforts were fruitless.

Journeying back to my ambulance, I observed the vehicle. There just didn’t seem to be enough damage to warrant a death and the patient hadn’t shown the outward signs of serious trauma.

That’s all I can say. It was a conundrum and it was never cleared up in my mind, probably because of the lack of information. However, it does remind me of two verses in Scripture.

Matthew 24:40

Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left.

Matthew 24:41

Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left.

This is not an interpretation but an application

Give it some thought.

Gary

What a trilogy of songs about a Viet Nam vet sung by the Bellamy Brothers. “Old Hippie” takes an old soldier’s life at 35, 45 and then 55. He describes his journey to Viet Nam as a high school trip. He states he was just a boy when they forced him to be a man.  From there, he travels through time and all of its memories and changes.

My favorite in the trilogy is the last song where he gets right with God and becomes a Christian. Hymns to this vet became more important than rock and roll. For many of those young men who became old men, life’s experiences led to heaven’s gates.

Life is so brief, especially for an old hippie and vet.

James 4:14

whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.

Psalm 39:5

Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Selah

We had the privilege of knowing so many of those men who taught us much.

Think about it.

Gary

I never had the opportunity to thank him for his counsel. Many times he would invite me into his office for a serious talk, usually after I’d pulled some boneheaded act. He died before I was mature enough to understand what he was trying to accomplish in my life. He was my high school principal who had spent some of his youth as a medic, looking after marines who are known to often find themselves in danger.

Now I try to thank those who have given me good counsel and there are many.

What I am today is a result of good counsel.

The Psalmist put it like this:

Psalms 32:8-10

  I will instruct (counsel) you and teach you in the way you should go;
         I will guide you with My eye.
 Do not be like the horse or like the mule,
         Which have no understanding,
         Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle,
         Else they will not come near you.

The Bible makes it clear we should seek good counsel from His Word.

Think about it.

Gary

“Behave.”   I think it was one of the first words I started recognizing as a toddler. By the time I started school, this word was repeated to me regularly. It followed me through school and didn’t disappear after I graduated. It seems to pop up occasionally in my wife’s vocabulary.

I can visualize myself in the nursing home and some poor, overworked CNA using that exact word to my chagrin. I’ll never get away from it in this life.

However, did you know that Paul used it when counseling Timothy about church order?

1Timothy 3:15

 if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to behave  themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. 

By the way, I was instructed about conducting myself in church when I was young. I didn’t always take it to heart, but I do now.

Give Timothy a read and give this devotional some thought.

Gary