Tag – He’s It!
DEVOTIONAL MARCH / APRIL 2024
Tag – He’s It!
The village of Echo Bay, Ontario, when I was in public school, had one stop sign, a grocery store, gas station, barbershop, general hardware store and a post office that was in a small stone building that had been the local jail.
The small public school was where I would arrive each school day on the local bus, after being picked up at our farm’s front door. It was here that I spent two happy years in Grade seven.
I had two favourite activities in school. One was reading Hardy Boy books, and the other was recess. Amazing I did not spend 2 happy years in every grade!
During the early grades, at recess, we always played tag, your it! This burned off energy, which our teachers were thrilled about. There was a problem though. At times, the big kids joined in and when that happened, we, the smaller kids were always “it.” When this happened to me, I felt like I was going to be It forever. Somehow, they changed the rules every time and all of us smaller kids were “It.” Hated it!
As I shared in my last devotional, I am now well into this new room, called “Liminal Space” and will continue to expand what I am “unlearning.”
I asked a close friend, who is a scholar/teacher/pastor, what is a “must read,” that I need to work through during this time. He was back to me promptly and said, get a copy of Dallas Willard’s “Life Without Lack.” I just finished it and yes, it is a must read. Dallas shares thoughts from Psalm 23. The psalmist is describing the life we all desire, to want or lack for nothing. Really?
Here are four thoughts from this book, which I am working through.
I want to live a Psalm 23rd life for the years I have left. If Jesus really is my Shepherd and with me 24/7, do I want this? For if I answer this honestly and say yes, my life is going to be different and that coincides with one of my words for 2024. Different! However, it does require you to say to Jesus and mean it, “Jesus, I want to experience more with you.” As Dallas writes, “ Am I really enthralled with Jesus or only prepared to put up with Him?”
It is okay for me to be who I am, that God accepts me, and I do not have to be someone else. Also, what is true about myself as a person, is also true about what you and I do. Your work is valuable. It is good that you are alive and who you are.
I cannot drift into a life of constant companionship with Jesus. I need to be deliberate about this and work it out with Him. Oh, I can drift into sin, however, not righteousness.
Being on the road with Jesus, will mean a few realities for me.
I will have the strength to do what He wants and assigns.
I will have a deep sense of joy and confidence. These are connected, for joy brings confidence and I do not need to focus on “What if’s,” which I am very prone to do.
In the game of “Tag, you are it”, Jesus is the “it” and I am “not it.” It is not up to me to make it all happen, for it does not all depend on me. In fact, over the years, I have prayed, “Lord, multiply my efforts” and then continued to try and help Him along. In this new liminal space, Jesus is it!
So, as I journey on, I am praying throughout the day, “Jesus, you are it!”
Alice Fryling writes, that one disturbing fear we face in aging is a sense of uselessness. We fear that we have entered a season of nonproductivity, incompetence or creeping irrelevancy.
With Jesus as “it”, He will transform us and teach us how to do even greater things, as John 14:12 tells us. We do not need to fear we won’t be useful, for in this new season we are called to love in new ways. And that is because He lives?
Yes, He is Risen!
Bruce
