“DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD AND HE WILL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART.”
PSALM 37:4
As the New Year began, I started thinking about this verse and decided this is the verse that I am going to try to live by this year. According to Webster’s dictionary the word delight means to give great pleasure to or to be highly pleased. As we think about our relationship with God, do we always give Him pleasure? Is God always pleased with us? If we want to be the kind of Christians that God wants us to be, we need to make sure that we are living a life that is pleasing to Him. We have a choice each day to live for Him or for the world. What is our choice?
I was reminded of a story by Chuck Swindoll that talks about living a focused life. It is tough to live a focused life. From every direction, something or someone clamors for our attention. A distraction draws our eyes and the next thing we know, we’ve swerved off the road and headed down another detour.
One Chicago youth pastor came up with a clever way to keep his group on track. Concerned that the balmy beaches of Florida—the site of the upcoming evangelism trip—would lure the teens from their purpose, he fashioned a cross from two pieces of lumber. Just before they climbed on the bus, he showed it to the group.
“I want all of you to remember that the whole purpose of our going is to glorify the name of Christ, to lift up the Cross—the message of the Cross, the emphasis of the Cross, the Christ of the Cross,” he announced. “So we’re going to take this cross wherever we go.”
The teenagers looked at one another, a little unsure of his plan. But they agreed to do it and dragged the cross on the bus. It banged back and forth in the aisle all the way to Florida. It went with them into restaurants. It stayed overnight where they stayed overnight. It stood in the sand while they ministered on the beach.
At first, lugging the cross around embarrassed the kids. But later, it became a point of identification. That cross was a constant, silent reminder of who they were and why they had come. They eventually regarded carrying it as an honor and privilege.
The night before they went home, the youth leader handed out two nails to each of the kids. He told them that if they wanted to commit themselves to what the cross stood for, they could hammer one nail into it and keep the other with them. One by one, the teens drove their nails into the cross.
About fifteen years later, one fellow—now a stockbroker—called the youth leader. He told him that he still keeps that nail with him in his desk drawer. Whenever he loses his sense of focus, he looks at the nail and remembers the cross on that beach in Florida. It reminds him of what is at the core of his life—his commitment to Jesus Christ.
TO GOD BE THE GLORY,
PASTOR MARK
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