It’s 2015, and I have set some lofty writing and publishing goals.
After much research and prep, I’m getting a website up this month. My plan includes improving my electronic skills. I have a devotional pending for the Upper Room www.upperroom.org and a series of articles about The Open Door Prison and Re-Entry Ministry to be published in The Voice of
SWLA www.thevoiceofsouthwestla.com. Yes, 2015 promises to be a great year.., and yet, I feel guilty. So many
blessings, I don’t feel worthy.
Psalm 23, verse five comes to my mind. “You set a table
before me in the presence of my enemies.”
I envision a large round table covered with a white
tablecloth. A delicate silver cup with a handle sits in the middle, engraved with my
initials. I’m trying to see the faces of the people sitting across from me, but
I don’t see any enemies. Over the years, I’ve tried to forgive those who have
hurt me. Sometimes I have had to take the pain and lay it down SEVERAL times. The chairs appear empty.
Wait! There’s a shadow, a puff of smoke rising. The chairs
aren’t unoccupied. They’re filled with apparitions and mirrors. My smarmy “selves” are
seated all around. Those annoying characteristics, like perfection, sarcasm,
self-centeredness, criticism, and negativism have all come to the Table. He
offers me the Host. I swallow the bread and wash it down with the juice. "God
forgive me my trespasses." But I don’t.
“You anoint my head with oil.”
The shepherd of Bible times oiled the sheep’s head to keep gnats with unseen disease away from their eyes.
The shepherd of Bible times oiled the sheep’s head to keep gnats with unseen disease away from their eyes.
Have you ever seen a child bend down to pick up a toy and
miss the edge of the table by a fraction of an inch? What undetected calamity am I
protected from every day—covered by the healing oil of grace. The human cells
divide, sluff, repair, produce antibodies, unseen mysteries of which science
only dreams. "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned."
“My cup runs over.”
He pours into my little silver cup blessings beyond full. Overflowing and beyond my imagination.
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