Today’s
Scripture Reading (May 18, 2019): Psalm
23
It is maybe the most critical question that needs to be asked of
any prospective politician, and especially those who run for the highest
offices in the land; what is it that you believe? What things are important to
you? We shouldn’t be looking for candidates to have a scattershot approach to
life, where everything is important on a wide range of topics. All of these
things might have benefit somewhere down the road, but the most crucial
question is just to know what it is that the politician believes, and what the
candidate considers to be important because every other decision will flow from
these beliefs.
How do we know what a candidate believes? Actually, that might be
easier than we think in our online, social media dominated, world. The answer
often lies in what it is that they said in the past. It is the caution that I
continually place in front of anyone who will listen; be careful about what it
is that you write down on your social media accounts because your words might
reveal more about you than you really want people to know. Those offhand
comments show what it is that you believe on a host of societal issues. And for
those who write opposing things in different situations, then it might reveal
that you hold nothing to be important, and can be swayed by anything, even
something as trivial as power and money.
David pens Psalm 23, which has been one of the most beloved Psalms
throughout history. And in his conclusion to the Psalm, he leaves the reader
with a blessing. “Surely your
goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in
the house of the Lord forever.” David, like all of his contemporaries,
did not have a good idea of what heaven might look like, but he knew that he
wanted to spend his “forever” in the house of God. He also wanted the goodness
and love of God to follow him all of his life. And why wouldn’t he? We all want to be the recipients of God’s
goodness and love.
But
if it is important to us, then it needs to be a prominent part of our behavior.
If we want God’s goodness and love, then we have to be the ones to give it. And
one way to see if “goodness and love” are really important to us, is to check
our social media posts. What is it that we write in our posts as we move through
life, especially how is it that we react when we think that someone might be
criticizing us. If we want “goodness and love” to follow us all of the days of
our lives, then we need to be willing to allow God’s “goodness and love” to
flow from us all the days of our lives, and especially on those days when we
walk through our darkest valleys.
Tomorrow’s
Scripture Reading: Psalm 25
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