"So I commend the enjoyment of life...then joy will accompany them in their toil." Psalm 37:3
Last Sunday I invited us to:
-Do one thing every day to cultivate intimacy with God.
-Do one thing every day to serve someone else.
-And do one thing every day that is good for YOU.
That last one is the hardest for many folks. Doing what's good for ourselves feels selfish. If you take loving God and serving others seriously, chances are doing what's good for you is a challenge. If that's at all the case, then maybe this story will help.
Eric Liddell was an incredible Scottish runner in the 1920's whose life was the focus of the movie, Chariots of Fire. He won gold and bronze medals in the 1924 Olympics and is remembered for his refusal to run in the heats for the 100-meter event, his best race, because they were held on Sunday. Liddell was very spiritual and came from a deeply religious household. In fact, his plan was to become a missionary, but his running career delayed that plan for a while.
One day his sister confronted him with the idea that his running and winning medals was a worldly pursuit. He should get on with his missionary career and doing God's work, after all, that, she said, was what he was made to do. Liddell said, "Yes, I believe God made me to be a missionary. But God also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure."
What do you do that you really enjoy, that makes you feel connected to your truest self, the person God made you to be? When you do that, you are probably bringing God as much pleasure as any other time. (Of course, Liddell experienced God's pleasure later as he served as a missionary in China, and then in a Chinese internment camp where he served other inmates and eventually died because of the brutal conditions.)
So I hope you're keeping at it, doing what's good for you, loving God, and serving others. Sometimes several of those, and maybe even all three, can happen at the same time.
See you Sunday,
Rob