Devotional 4-7-18

Please read Psalm 147:12-20

My husband, Steve, is a Cyclist. With a capital C. And it amazes me. He rides miles and miles and miles on a road bike that has tires about an inch wide. A few years ago, he rode with a group of men from Huntington to Washington D.C. to raise money for homeless veterans in our town.  There are seven mountains between Elkins and Petersburg. Imagine for a moment the amount of balance it requires to control a two-wheeled pedal-powered bicycle with one-inch wide tires moving down a mountain at 40 miles an hour in traffic. He was continually making hundreds of decisions regarding speed, direction, weight distribution, application of brakes and choice of gears.

Balance.

I was reading this morning about free will – the truth that God has given us the ability to make choices, and that those choices have consequences. A consequence can be as small as a hurt feeling that is quickly forgotten to as large as a life changed forever to as monumental as the world turned upside-down. We have free will.

And yet, Psalm 147:15-18 says this: “He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly.  He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes.   He hurls down hail like crumbs—who can stand before his cold?  He sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his wind blow, and the waters flow.”

God created the world. The sun rises and sets, the rain falls, the snow flies. It is so foundational that we probably don’t even think about it. AND God has given us dominion in the world. Dominion. God-given responsibility. Our choices in the stewardship of what is around us have consequences.

Balance.

The sun rises and sets, the rain falls, the snow flies, but what we do has consequences. Even in something as foundational as creation. We must remember, like the bicyclist speeding down the hill, we are have been given the responsibility for the precious balance that keeps everything in working order.

Imagine for a moment if my husband had decided that his decisions and actions on the bicycle had no impact on his descent down the mountain. Disaster. 

And so it is with us.

Prayer: Creating God, guide our steps, open our eyes to the world around us and to the consequences of our obedience to you. In your son’s name, Amen.

Kim Matthews