I am BLESSED that I set up a 4-day weekend for myself. I was feeling crispy around the edges, working so much. Not that I minded the work, I loved it, but sometimes you have to pause and RECHARGE. Not that I won’t be busy this fun 4 days, but it’s like SWITCHING TRACKS, taking my frame of mind and placing it on a DIFFERENT “train of thought” track, hopefully a really good track. It’s always the right track when we are getting away from the crashing loose tumbling rocks that make you jump tracks!
The two scriptures MOST ringing thru my head both for work and for life’s day to day play this week are: 1) we are to work hard and humbly at whatever we do as if we were working for the Lord, AND 2) how some wonders will be all gone one day, like the amazing temple that Jesus knew would be destroyed. Yup, we are to build, yes, but ALWAYS be ready to switch tracks. Pick up and keep going.
SO, Day one of 4 days off, Saturday, met my friend for lunch in the city, but like we switched plans a lot and switched tracks A LOT. Even went the wrong way once, almost twice. I was OK for time, but often when there is little time, the day can get away. So, we settled for a favorite lunch place and then I went forward with my next adventure and saw the church my great grandparents got married at. Cool!
At the church, which was all boarded up for renovations, I snapped a few pics, then the Spirit track led me to walk across the street to chat with a hotel doorman, Hector is his name, asking him about the church. He started mentioning our world troubles and we chatted both agreeing this is NOT our home, we are awaiting Jesus to come back, and I mentioned that Revelation scripture on my mind plus about Jesus looking at the greatest temple of their time and knowing that it would be destroyed. Oh, Hector was THRILLED to speak about the HOLY SPIRIT. He was grateful for the opportunity to share. How cool… How Holy Spirit… I enjoyed hearing him witness how the Lord brought him up from the street and saved him. Hector mentioned how much his heart hurt when he sees lost people now, who were lost like him. He clearly now has a Jesus heart, understanding His pain. We are NOT to be friends with this lost world, work in it yes, but set apart. Yes, it was an intensely natural conversion between fellow children of God. We agreed that the “church” was no longer church buildings nor in the renovations of the buildings, but WE ARE HIS TEMPLE, EACH OF US, for Him. And now the church as the bride of Christ will be awaiting our wedding feast. We agreed to be all out waiting and working and witnessing until Jesus calls us home. WE WILL BE SALT AND LIGHT.
SALT. Yum, a SIDETRACK to a great candy store, for chatty conversation and SALT caramels.
LIGHT. I’m on the train tracks towards home now. The people are chatty, the tired people are giddy, giggly, and talking about their days. What interesting side tracks we all have. The people this morning were chatty too. I like that I took these switched up tracks today. I really hope to see these folks again. Hector and I plan to meet up in Heaven, someday, when that Trumpet blows… I think that will sound like a TRAIN WHISTLE… and Jesus says: “ALL ABOARD!”
Amen
—-
Mark 13:1-2
As he was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
“Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
Colossians 3:23-24
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
—-
Debbie Upper 