PEACE WHILE YOU WAIT

Janet Chester Bly

Copyright©2008,2011

Stop. Look at a clock. Watch the second hand tick around. . .for as long as you can bear. Now, assess your response. Do you consider this. . .

A rare break of pure rest?

A moment closer to a personal finish line?

A moment closer to your entrance into eternity?

Wasting time while you age away?

All of the above?

None of the above?

Minutes count. Let them mean something. Here’s a suggestion.

Carry a small book or Kindle® in your purse. Or in the car. Have it available most all the time. Redeem any moment by giving your mind an assignment. Muse in a creative way. If you can’t think of anything, dip into your book. Even better, open The Book.

Aim to read some Bible verses every day. To receive guidance. To get to know God better. To help you see people and problems from His point of view. To know the record of how God has interacted with humans through the ages. No matter where you open this inspired, God-breathed book, you’ll find some truth that relates to your situation. If your mind’s open. If your heart’s willing. If your spirit’s ready. 

“I read it straight through once,” a woman once told me. “Once is enough. I don’t have to read it again. I know what’s in there.”

Whoa, does she ever miss the treasure. I once rode straight across Italy in a tour bus. Saw all the signposts to the great cities and stopping places. Sped through the streets of Rome. Been there. Done that.

Mine the insights. Meditate on the wisdom. Study every facet. Until light breaks through the fog, the dark. It will take all eternity to know all there is to understand about God. Meanwhile, what does He have to say to you today? Pick out a page. Pause until you find peace. Until you hear His voice.

"Don't be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you" (Psalm 27:14 TLB).

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What's the best thing you've discovered to do to make use of the time or to find a moment's peace while you wait. . .in line, at the airport, by yourself in a crowd, for road work, etc.?

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Download comp copy of "31 Ways To Win The Fight For Personal Peace" at our website: http://BlyBooks.com/articles.htm 

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LANDING THE TWO-FOOT DANCE

Steve at Maranatha in Michigan

On the Trail with Stephen Bly

Copyright©1993,2010

Miles City, Montana, holds a bucking horse sale every year. Quite a doin’s with rodeo, sale and plenty of celebrations. A stock contractor friend of mine often heads there to check out good horses to buy for his rodeo string. 

Last time I saw him I asked, “How’d you do in Miles City?”

“Well,” he said, “I got there with both feet at the beginning. But things trailed off at the end.”

When a cowboy says he got there ‘with both feet,’ he means he achieved success with his venture. He did the dance. My friend bartered good deals at the auction’s start, but the bidding intensified later.

Life's often a two-foot dance. Getting to the goal with both feet—that’s what most of us want. Whether we’re presenting at a conference, meeting a dinner deadline, courting a romantic interest, or punching cows.

Or about to enter heaven’s gate.

God told Joshua how to land with both feet: “be strong and very courageous,” then he’s promised prosperity and success (Joshua 1:8).

Sure sounds mighty good. Our role is to be strong. To be courageous. Then we’ll succeed. That is, land with both feet.

However, between the exhortation and the promise comes this command: “Do not let this book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it” (Joshua 1:8).

Whoops—a mighty tall order. That requires diligence … to The Book. To read it. To study it. To memorize it. To meditate upon it. To be careful to follow the instructions. Many folks try to skip that part.

Oh sure, everyone wants instant rewards. On earth, as well as in the life beyond. But things like paying close attention to God’s likes and dislikes, big concepts like discipleship … obedience … that  seems too … constricting.

But there’s no sidestep here.

Follow the basic pattern.

Fully enter in. 

Don't stay on the sideline.

A dance-floor necessity.

And crucial to the spiritual two-foot promenade.

Where do you feel most awkward ... on the dance floor or at a Bible trivia contest?

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Have you read The Surprising Side of Grace?

Available at the Bly Books Bookstore: http://BlyBooks.com/store.htm 

DOFUNNIES & FOFARRAW

On the trail with Stephen Bly

Tate Aragon asked to look in the glove compartment of his pickup for a tube of deworming paste. I couldn’t find it, but I did discover a rusted spur rowel, a hatchet head, three 12 gauge shotgun shells, an “I Like Ike” campaign button, a petrified half a cheeseburger, an elk-head carved bar of soap, a Susan B. Anthony silver dollar with a hole shot through it, and a rubber rattlesnake. Tate explained, “That’s where I stow my dofunnies.”

Dofunnies—a cowboy’s name for trinkets carried in his war bag, usually tucked in the center of his bedroll. The old time trappers and scouts coined a similar word for anything fancy, whether shirt or boots or hat: fofarraw. Some fellas packed around plenty of dofunnies and fofarraw, that often slowed them down on the trail. We’ve got a junk drawer in our house for such things, where we toss odds and ends we don’t need, can’t use or don’t know where else to put them, but can’t bring ourselves to throw them away. No harm in that, as long as this stash doesn’t rob us of the space needed for more critical items.