Morning all … I am so grateful for the opportunity to engage with you from my table. I want to express my appreciation for the encouraging messages we received over the last few years from Commissioner Torben as he shared with us. Now it’s the same table but a different person in the seat, so please feel free to pull up a chair, grab a good coffee, and let’s talk.
We took up our appointment in the middle of January, and since then the days have been continually busy. We have travelled, visited units in MKZN, EC and NKZN, and had welcome meetings with the Cadets and Mission Team. Busy days, but so encouraging and rewarding.
The other morning, in a beautiful hotel room in Limpopo, I read my devotions for the day — and a few moments later received a message of congratulations from the app, along with a reminder to keep reading and learning.
Appropriately, the verse that day was 1 Timothy 4:6–9 from The Message:
“You’ve been raised on the Message of the faith and have followed sound teaching. Now pass on this counsel to the Christians there, and you’ll be a good servant of Jesus. Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God — no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. You can count on this. Take it to heart.”
I was immediately convicted (maybe that’s too strong a word) of my flabbiness. In the early morning light it couldn’t be hidden! I am about 4kg overweight, and that is a problem needing to be fixed… but as I closed that Bible app and said my prayers, the phone beeped again and my congratulations came — “Well done, another day done, keep this up.”
I, and many of you, have been raised on the message of faith. We have heard sound teaching and received good counsel, but sometimes, around various tables, we lapse and put on some unnecessary weight. Sometimes we skip a day of communion with our Father. We miss opportunities for conversation with His Son. We get so busy that His praise becomes muted in our activities.
I am not sure how many kilograms you need to lose (or maybe put on), but I do know that time with Jesus — time in His presence, awareness of His love, and worship of His name — will be of far greater, eternal value.
Maybe find a table, clear some space, take a seat, and sit side by side with our Father. Breathe in. Breathe out. Listen… and lose some of the weight of the day.