My Life on a 3×5

I have worked my first 5 day week in quite awhile, so it’s been hard to write.  But as I was straightening my house this morning and tidying up, I came across my backup Memory for my laptop.  I looked down at it and realized just how much of my writings are on it.  All my poems, some of my journals, my songs, art etc.  It’s a little plug in device about 3×5 inches.  I have been writing for about 40 years now, so there’s a lot of writing all around my house.  We just recently moved to a new home and stored some of the writings in the basement.  Little did we know that the basement got wet whenever it rained, so all of those early writings of mine were ruined, lost forever.  I even lost 9 chapters of a book I started, but never finished. years ago.  I started to grieve, but then remembered some Scriptures that lifted my spirits.  Here they are:

I will cry to God Most High, To God who accomplishes all things for me.  Psalm 57:2

The Lord will accomplish what concerns me; Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.  Psalm 138:8

Accomplish…hmmm what an interesting concept.  We usually have to write a “list of our accomplishments,’ on job resume’s or descriptions of ourselves for employment blurbs, etc.  But I gotta tell ya, from a worldly perspective, my list of accomplishments is short.  But God doesn’t keep the same kind of list that the world does.  Jesus describes our list of accomplishments in a couple of verses:

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the great and foremost commandment. ³⁹ The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”  Matt. 22

And Jesus is echoing the Old Testament in saying this

¹² “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³ and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

Notice that it says, “For your good.” God’s Will is good, well-pleasing and perfect, according to Romans 12: 1&2

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

So I don’t measure myself against the world’s standards, the standards of others, or even my own.  But I strive to live for God each day, loving Him more and more, and trusting His Word and Work, in and through my life.    After all, back in the day, some thought Jesus was a homeless vagabond, born in a lowly stable, to a mother with  a tainted reputation and what looked like a “patched up marriage.”  But God was right there, working it all for their good, and for the good of all mankind, forever and ever.  Surely He can work miracles in and through my extremely ordinary life.  But no life is ever ordinary whenever surrendered completely to God.  So as you can see, my life, and yours, is never summed up by God on a little 3×5 Memory Device.  Our life is of incalculable worth.  He gave His most precious Son, Jesus, to be our Savior.  All we need to do is trust His purpose, Love Him more and more, and Believe in Him forever.  That’s a Life Well-lived. Amen and Amen!