Category: Trusting God

Make the Most of Your Shelf-Life

Live it with a Purpose

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For the months of June and July our offices work 40 hours Monday through Thursday and closes on Friday to save electricity.  For each Friday I have off, I have selected an area of the house to clean/purge.  The first week it was our file cabinet.  I took three big shopping bags of paper to the shredders.  file cabinetLast Friday I tackled the pantry.  I just don’t know how it happens.  The oldest date I found was a box of pudding mix from 2008.  It was pistachio flavored.  I bought it to make a jello salad that never happened.  I threw away items that had been in the pantry for several years and just reached their expiration date such as a jar of molasses.  I can’t even remember how long I have had it.  I use it about twice a year when I make ham and beans.  I will have to get a new one now.  There were also items such as a package of hot dog buns that had just recently been purchased for a Memorial Day cookout, but were already non-edible.  Every item in my pantry was bought for a reason.  I had a plan and purpose in mind for every item when I put it in my grocery cart.  It is just that some items were used for their purpose and some just sat on the shelf until their time was up.

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”  Like the items in the pantry, God has created each and everyone of us for a purpose.  We are to walk in love, light and wisdom (Ephesians 5).  We are to live a life that bares the fruit of the Spirit demonstrating love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22 & 23).  “Above all, love each other deeply, …. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others” 1 Peter 4:8-9.  Actually loving one another is such an important part of our purpose there are over 30 verses telling us to do so.

Back to the pantry.  For all of the food I threw out that had not been used for its purpose, we almost daily use something from the pantry for the purpose it was originally purchased.  What I wonder is am I living in a way where I can be used to my full purpose or am I just sitting on the shelf taking the path of least resistance?

It is obvious we as humans have a shelf-life just like the box of cereal or the bottle of balsamic vinegar.  For reasons I can’t explain or even begin to understand, everyone has a different shelf-life.  Some are born with a short shelf-life like Oreo cookies and can complete their purpose in life quickly while others, like a bag of rice, have years to complete their purpose in life.  The question is are you making the most of the shelf-life you have been given?  Are the fruits of the Spirit evident in your actions?  Personally, I have some days that are better than others and some fruits that are more abundant than others.  Kindness – for the most part, I am by nature kind to others.  However, self-control is a topic for later discussion.  It just doesn’t come naturally for me.  No matter, I am committed to trying to live my entire shelf-life to the best of my ability as I can only do with God’s help.  And with His help, I will not spend my life just taking up space on the pantry shelf.

Plank in the Eye?

A Speck is Painful Enough

In Matthew 7 and Luke 6 the parable is told “and why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”  After calling this person a Hypocrite, Jesus instructs us to “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

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This parable has a whole new meaning for me tonight.  I had a left eye experience today that opened my eyes (pun intended).  First I had my annual eye doctor appointment.  As I was complaining about the frustrating process of taking my glasses on and off for each different event, my doctor suggested one contact or mono-vision to help with my aging sight.  I was all in.  I moved from the exam room to the table at the back of the office to practice this new contact adventure.  Putting the contact in was no problem.  This rookie got it in on the first try.  I wish I could say the same for the extraction of the contact.  It took multiple attempts and by multiple, I mean like 15-20.  The assistant was adding drops, double checking that is was still there, and coaching me the entire time.  Because I was such a slow learner, she made me do it again with about the same results.  I went back to the work with my eye red and swollen and not one bit of make-up on the left side of my face.

This event was nothing compared to the antics it took to get the contact out tonight at home by myself.  I worked and worked just like I was instructed at the office.  I could not get it out.  Then I noticed it didn’t appear that the contact was still in my eye.  I picked up my phone and sure enough, I couldn’t read my phone so it had to be out.  Oh no, I couldn’t be that lucky.  It was folded up and lodged up under my eye lid.  You can only imagine the effort it took to get my finger up there to dig the wad of film out.  I actually have a small bruise on my check where I have been digging my fingernails into my face trying to hold my eye open.

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I embarrassingly tell you this story because I feel it is comparable to the removal of a speck or plank from the eye in the biblical sense.  Obviously, this story is a metaphor concerning judgement of others. In the last part of the parable, we are instructed to remove the plank from our own eye.  In other words focus on our own faults not others. I have no idea what it would be like to have a plank in your eye, but  I’m here to say, it takes great effort to get something really small out of your eye.  Think back to the last time you had hair or fuzz in your eye and couldn’t get it out.  If you are like me, you rub and rub, look in the mirror, shine the light from your phone in your eye…. everything you can do to get the uncomfortable object out of your eye.

The question is,  do the faults in our lives make us uncomfortable enough that we want them gone?  I ask myself, am I as desperate to remove the sin or shortcomings from my life as I was to get the foreign object from my eye?  Who can walk around with something in their eye?  Not I.  However, I daily walk around completely unconcerned about the faults or sin in my life.  What would happen if you didn’t remove the object from your eye?  Your eye would continue to water, become more irritated with time, eventually end up with scratches and likely infection.  Sin does the same thing.  It scratches, scars and poisons our lives.  The problem is, we let it stay and often even justify its existence as necessary.

I pray tonight that God will show me the changes I need to make in my life by making them as uncomfortable as an object in my eye.