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I Got Irritated
On a visit to Sam’s Club the other day, I got mildly irritated—not angry or mad—just irritated.
It happened as I came into the produce section and went by an area of the store where a Sam’s Club worker was putting oranges through a machine to make freshly squeezed orange juice.
I usually enjoy the tangy fragrance as I go through the aisles selecting the produce I need, but today, I was assaulted by a high-pitched noise coming from the machinery that automatically squeezes the oranges to produce the juice.
As I passed other customers, they gave me a smile, so I felt sure they were as irritated as I was that someone in management hadn’t shut the machine down.
The noise seemed to be getting worse as I hurried to make my selections and move out of the area, and for a brief moment, I considered saying something to the person restocking the apples.
Instead, I quickly made my way over to the dairy section.
But, despite the fact I’d moved several feet away, I could still hear the high-pitched squeaking.
Suddenly, it dawned on me.
I was the one causing the irritating noise.
Or rather, as I made my way around the store, the squeaky wheels on my cart were responsible for the awful racket.
While I’d been blaming everyone else for my discomfort, I was responsible for it all along.
I immediately found myself smiling, and yes, I saw a lesson in it as well.
The fact that I was looking somewhere else for the source of my irritation reminded me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:3-5: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? … First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”
It was a reminder that before blaming someone else for whatever is bothering me, I should examine myself first.
Once I’ve looked inward, I may not need to look outward.
James 1: 14-15: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
What Really Counts?
I recently saw this quote attributed to Winston Churchill: “Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
As I thought about the sentiment behind this quote—that neither success nor failure defines a person, but what truly matters is the determination to keep going—I realized that while the language was inspiring, it wasn’t Biblical and therefore wasn’t true.
Churchill was emphasizing human determination rather than faith in God. He suggested that personal courage is the key to overcoming challenges, but Scripture teaches us that believers should rely on God’s strength rather than their own determination.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6.
While Churchill’s statement implies that success and failure are transient, believers understand that both are under God’s sovereign control and part of God’s plan for His people.
“He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.” Daniel 2:21.
And lastly, what truly “counts” at the end of life is not courage, but faith in Christ.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9.
This is not to say that perseverance isn’t encouraged in the Christian life. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
However, it is only through God’s strength and guidance that believers endure.
What are you counting on when you can no longer count?
Choose to Chuckle
During our college days, my husband and I befriended Benjamin, a student from Lagos, Nigeria, who traveled halfway around the world to attend a Baptist college in East Texas after becoming a believer through the witness of some Baptist missionaries.
Benjamin, who was the son of a tribal witch doctor, was at least fifteen years older than we were, and he seemed much wiser. His wisdom came from years of lived experiences, and he wasn’t shy about sharing those stories with us, something we encouraged him to do whenever we invited him to have a meal with us.
Decades later, many of his stories still have an impact on my life, primarily because the culture he grew up in was so different from my own, so consequently, his perspective caused me to look at the world and my faith through a different lens.
One of my favorite stories was the one he told us about the time he and his best friend were on their way to another village and were attempting to cross a flooded river. He described the difficulty he had in making it across, and then he told us how anxious he felt when he saw his friend fighting the current, eventually going under, but then emerging a little later and grabbing a tree branch along the riverbank.
Benjamin began laughing as he got to this part of the story, so we assumed it had a happy ending, but then he said, “But as God would have it, the branch broke off, and my friend drowned.”
When we questioned him about why he laughed even though he must have felt sad at the loss of his friend, he said, “In my culture, when something is so sad that you can’t cry about it, then we choose to laugh. Choosing to laugh will eventually overcome your sadness.”
I’ve often remembered Benjamin’s advice during difficult periods in my life, and each time I’ve followed his advice and chosen laughter to get me through the rough patch, I’ve always found it made the situation better.
I was reminded of this as I was reading some verses from the Bible this week about joy, and I came across some similar advice from the writer of Proverbs.
Proverbs 17:22 says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”
Are you going through a hard time?
Choose to chuckle.
I believe you’ll find it’s good medicine.
Words Don’t Really Matter
Do words really matter? We tell our children they do. We defend our use of words. We remind ourselves to choose our words carefully.
However, at the end of our life, whether we die of old age, disease, violence, or an accident, our words don’t really matter. There’s only one word that matters—His Word—the Word of God.
It was His Word that brought our world into existence, His Word that brought comfort to sinful Man in the Garden, His Word that promised a coming redemption.
It was the Word who became a man, the Word who healed a cripple, the Word who restored sight to the blind, the Word who brought a dead man to life, the Word who said, “Father, forgive them.”
It was the Word who took the punishment for our sins, the Word who conquered death for us, the Word who rose to give us life.
Our words don’t really matter, but His Word does.
His Word says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:7
No other words matter.
From Sin to Forgiveness
In my three Christian fiction series—Titus Ray Thrillers, Mylas Grey Mysteries, and Silas McKay Suspense—each of my protagonists is at a different place in his spiritual journey.
However, of the three, Titus Ray, a covert operative, has the most difficulty forgiving others for past mistakes.
Titus was brought to faith in Christ through the influence of an Iranian Christian couple in Tehran who hid him in their home for three months while he was on the run from the secret police.
Even though Titus grew up in “Christian” America, he knew nothing about Christianity. He came from a family who never attended church, who never mentioned God—except in a swear word—and who never went inside a church unless it was to attend a funeral.
Thus, it wasn’t surprising that Titus didn’t know how to live out his faith when he became a believer and returned to the States to resume his career at the CIA. However, he remembered the Iranian Christians read their Bible every day, so he purchased his first Bible and began reading the gospel of John.
From reading his Bible and being mentored by more mature believers, he gradually figured out how to control his volatile temper, and how to recognize the difference between deceiving others as part of his profession and doing so willfully to further his own agenda.
By far, the most difficult part of his Christian walk so far has been learning to forgive others—from his alcoholic father to other operatives who made foolish decisions that cost people their lives—but his journey toward real and lasting forgiveness only began when he heard these words from Ephesians 5:32: “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
Jesus himself showed us the example when he was in the throes of agony on the cross and cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34.
Titus realized he was to forgive others even as he had been forgiven, for no one had ever wronged him as much as the Son of God had been wronged.
A lesson from a fictional character to real believers.
Let’s Talk Happiness
It’s been a cold, rainy week in Oklahoma. Not much sunshine. I’m not a person who gets depressed, and I really like some rainy days every now and then, but I’ve been longing for sunshine for two days now. People seem to be happier when the sun is shining.
As I thought about what makes people happy, I came across a devotional that references mankind’s universal search for happiness.
In the article, a book by C. S. Lewis called Mere Christianity is referenced. Here are two quotes from it that I believe give clarity and substance to the idea of happiness.
“All that we call human history–money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empires, slavery–is the long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.”
“God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” –C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity.
A bright cloudless day can’t really make a person happy. Only God can do that.
Turn your face toward the Son. Bask in the warmth and happiness of His Light today.
“You make known to me the path of life, in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11.
Fifteen Minutes Earlier
Whenever I come to the last day of a year, I always remember something that happened to me almost fifty years ago. That memory is triggered because at the end of every year, I finish reading all 66 books of the Bible.
Once I finish, I always record it in the front of the Bible I’ve been using for that year. Not surprisingly, I’ve gone through several Bibles in those fifty years.
Even though I write down each time I’ve read it through, I don’t do so to show I’ve met some goal. I do it to remind myself that I’ve kept my commitment to the Lord to spend the first fifteen minutes of every morning with Him.
In reality, I usually spend an hour reading the Bible and praying before I start my day, but when I first made this commitment, I only agreed to do it for fifteen minutes.
I made this promise as I was convalescing at my parents’ house while recovering from gallbladder surgery. That’s when I came across a little booklet in my mother’s collection of books that was entitled “Time Alone With God.”
Even though I would often read my Bible, it was sporadic and not a daily practice. However, this author challenged me to set my alarm fifteen minutes early and spend that time reading the Bible, using a plan included in the booklet that would mean I would read the Bible through in a year.
The author promised that if I would make this commitment, the Lord would meet me in the pages of His Word every morning, and I would come to know Him in a more intimate way.
There was a commitment page I could sign, along with the location of where I planned to have my “Time Alone With God.” Once I signed it, I noticed that below my signature, it said something like, “Remember this commitment, because the Lord will always be here waiting for you, whether you honor your promise or not.”
From that day forward, I’ve always set my alarm to get up in plenty of time to keep my commitment—despite obligations with my family and a work scheduled—and I’m convinced that having that time with the Lord has brought Him glory and honor and transformed my life into one of joy, peace, happiness, and contentment.
Tomorrow, January 1st (or a day of your choosing),you have the opportunity to experience this for yourself. I urge you to do so, and here’s a link where you can find a daily Bible reading plan to help you on your way.
Looking For Something?
As the Christmas holidays get near, I often go to a store “looking for something” to give as a present, without really having something specific in mind. I just know I’ll recognize it as something the person might like or need.
When I was reading through the gospel of John recently, I noticed that God is also “looking.” John 4:23 says, “But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The Father is looking for those who will worship him that way.”
So God is “looking” or “seeking,” as some translations say, for people to worship Him.
There’s no doubt God deserves to be worshiped.
Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, we are presented with reasons to worship Him—for what He has made, for what He has done, for who He is, for His attributes—so it’s not surprising in Revelation 4:11 that we find worshipers in heaven declaring a beautiful summary of why we should worship Him. “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
But what about now? Jesus said God was seeking people to worship him as we go about our earthly lives. He’s looking for true worshipers, those who give him honor and glory in their spirit as well as in their lives. As He’s seeking, will he find you?
What Difference Does It Make?
All of us have a story. It may be your parenting story, your pregnancy story, your career story, or the story of your life. A story I’ve always enjoyed hearing is the story of someone’s salvation—all the details surrounding how a person came to faith in Christ.
When we lived in Indiana in the late 1980’s, the editor of our denomination’s weekly state paper, The Indiana Baptist, asked me to do a weekly column on a different individual each week and emphasize the details of their conversion experience. I decided to call the column “A Story To Tell.”
My husband’s job at that time was in Baptist missions, and we traveled to a different church in Indiana every week. We usually arrived at the church at least an hour before he was to preach, so I had time to seek out a friendly man or woman, get their permission to record our conversation, and then ask them to tell me their salvation experience. After the interview, I would write down our conversation in a story format.
While all the stories culminated when the person became a born-again Christian, each convert’s circumstances were unique. However, after several months of writing salvation stories, the common thread I saw in each person’s experience was the way God used a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or even a stranger to draw the unsaved person to Christ.
An example of this was the young man who had not been brought up in the church, knew nothing of the Lord and was planning on becoming a professional golfer. One evening, when he was about to enter a nightclub to enjoy several hours of partying, he noticed a group of people carrying picket signs. They were protesting what was going on inside the establishment. One of the signs read “The wages of sin is death.”
For weeks the young man was haunted by these words, but he had no idea what they meant. However, after he followed his girlfriend’s suggestion to talk to a pastor, he was led to the Lord, and his life was forever transformed.
I’m sure the man who had picketed the nightclub that night carrying a sign with the words from Romans 6:23 written on it, never realized his small gesture eventually made an eternal difference in someone’s life.
What difference will you make in someone’s salvation story?
THE BIG THANK
If I was restricted to only ONE THANK,
to whom would my BIG THANK go?
I’d give it to the ONE who deserves it all.
THANK YOU for being a
grace-giving,
faith-making,
man-saving,
love-providing,
sin-forgiving,
need-supplying,
pride-killing,
joy-flowing,
decision-guiding,
universe-creating,
disease-healing,
sorrow-lifting,
gift-imparting,
eternity-sharing,
GOD
Book 8 in the Mylas Grey Mystery Series, Click on cover
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Ben in Charge, Follows Three Steps Away in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
Ben in Love, Follows Two Steps Forward in the Titus Ray Thriller Series
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His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich 
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