Worth

Accurate Measuring, Authentic, Confidence, Faithfulness, Focus, Future, Grace, Identity, Integrity, Legacy, Perspective, Value, Worth

Daily Bread

I remember seeing this picture of an older man praying over his daily bread when I was just a kid. At about four or five years old, I wasn’t sure who it was in the picture, it might have been my grandpa, but my four-year-old mind wasn’t sure it could be. However, even then, there was enough pause and reflection to cause me to wonder.

Fifty-seven(ish) years later, I was able to acquire that picture. I probably could have bought it anywhere or anytime, but when it came time to sort my dad’s things, it was one of the things that I was drawn to. I don’t think he even had the childhood original, but that moment caught on that film mattered.

The other thing I was drawn to was his own personal bible. Two months ago, my dad died at ninety-three after a three-year decline into blindness. I got his bible before he died, back when my mom sorted through their stuff in preparation for downsizing.

I wanted the personal vibe of my dad’s private, devotional life. As far as I could tell, my dad wasn’t orthodox, even according to him.

He was, however, deeply devoted to his Lord and Saviour. He believed in a resurrected Christ who interacted daily with him through the always-present Holy Spirit.

I knew because I had watched him, and his bible reflected this reality with many personal insights written in it, underscored and emphasized in pen ink. Dad inculcated what he read into his daily life and did it regularly. That was my heritage. That is my blessing.

Accurate Measuring, Approval, Attitude, Character, Identity, Worth

Joseph Series: Dressed for Success

Joseph was robbed of his identity as the favoured son; they stole his coat to show it.

Joseph refused to be identified as a traitor and an adulterer; he abandoned his cloak to prove it.

Joseph became the ruler of the land; the garments of royalty declared it.

It took thirteen years and three coats for Joseph to discover his identity.

It would be easy for someone in his sandals to lose heart, to be forced to accept the overwhelming circumstances, to be compelled to give up, but the clothes of authority that he needed to wear demanded success; the leader that he was called to be required no less.

Identity is no easy assignment; it seems to bring with it the very struggle that could derail it. Joseph could have quit, and we would never have known. Conversely we also never would be taking courage from this story of the Amazing.

God was at work in Joseph’s life; growing up he saw his dad struggle with God, and he must have learned it well.

“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.” (Acts 7:9-10, NIV)

We are instructed in the scriptures that God does not show favouritism. That means that what he does for one he will do for others. That means:

God is at work in your life!

He calls you son, and he calls you daughter he identifies you as his.

What clothes do you need to put on?

You Don’t Have To Live; You get To!

Character, Inconsistency, Integrity, Worth

Everyone Else Is

What do you do when everyone else is doing it?

There is ample opportunity to cut corners, to cheat, to ‘score,’ to sell the flawed dressed up as the perfect, after all, everyone else is doing it, or are they?

I can hear my dad in my ears, “Well if everyone else was jumping off a bridge would you do it?”

The answer is supposed to be ‘no,’ but I’ve grown up in a culture that actually jumps off bridges and pays someone for the opportunity. So the point gets clouded and indistinct. I see a culture today where there is a lot of ‘fuzz’ and not enough clarity.

Where are the Daniel’s of our day, the three Hebrew children? Where are the uncompromising, the integral, the honest if you will?

When it seems not to matter when no one appears to be looking, where are the men and women who play it straight?

Do you know anyone like that?

Do your friends?

You Don’t Have To Live; You Get To!

Uncategorized, Worth

It’s a reach, a reach way back, but if my grade nine memory serves me correctly, I think that I remember the cost of our human body. When it all shakes down with all the water extracted all that is left are the minerals, I think that the price of the minerals was $7.00. If that is all that we are about, I think you would agree it isn’t much. It’s not even worth the time that it took me to write this paragraph or the time you took to read it.

Aren’t you glad, I mean super glad that our worth and value are not the same as the cost of personal minerals?

Value and worth speak about importance and meaning.

God decided to get involved with this human race, not because of minerals and water, but because of intrinsic value. He invested his life and reputation just to know you and to do life with you.

Not bad for a seven bucks.

You don’t have to live; You Get To!