Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Tuesday January 2, 2007

Madonna Davis, not the other Madonna, put a neat poem in the Sunday bulletin of our church. I read it to the thirsty eared congregation and it was met with joy. I really like the idea in the poem and I think you will too. You may be a wee bit upset with my analysis of the poem from the practical perspective. Mildred Bell wrote the poem.

Make It Count

"The New Year is coming with battles to be won;

At the close we remember what we should have said or done.

Yesterday has said adieu, we know not where it went,

All your troubles leave behind, a new day God has sent.

As the year is swiftly passing, in prayer we bow our heads

And take stock of all the things we should have left unsaid.

Put the grudges all behind you, let the sunshine enter in,

Then you’ll be completely ready for the New Year to begin."

Ah, the things I should have said or done. That line will cause a rush to a place of prayer and elicit vows of better behavior in 2007. And how about the myriad of things that were better left unsaid? You know those real tongue biters. I sure had a bunch.

Like most of you I made the regular resolutions and the next several hundred days will test the intensity of said resolutions. I hope they prove to be resolutions and not mere wishful thinking. I also own that the choice is mine. It won’t be all that hard from my humble position in life to continue my work for world peace and to abolish hunger in the world. I’ll sure do my part. Keeping the widely known Lilly temper in bounds will, according to history, require much more effort and surrender to Holy Spirit control.

I like the poem, and I wish one part of it were true.

"All your troubles leave behind." In reality about all we can do about 'troubles' is to make better, spirit led choices in 2007.

Tragically, the plate of consequences, mentioned by one Robert Louis Stevenson, will be set before us until that part of the menu is phased out. It is the old universal law, written in some form in all religions and given as pure truth by the Lord in Galatians 6:7,

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

As many of you, I have frivolously sown to wind and when the whirlwind comes, I fall on my knees and seriously beg the Lord Jesus for crop failure.

Ah, life really does have its 'plate' of consequences. As a child once said to a famous baseball player, "Say it ain't so Joe." To say it would be to lie, so eat the consequences and resolve to make better, Christ honoring choices in 2007.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2007 Use with Credit.

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