Recession & Recovery

Psalm 16: 6-7 

(New International Version, ©2010)

6 …Surely I have a delightful inheritance. 

7 I will praise the LORD, who counsels me; 

   

   My parents went to Africa in the middle of the great depression. Dad taught at a small Christian college there, and Mom stayed home to look after us. Salaries were never enough, but they were frugal and educated us two boys in Christian schools. This often meant going without a much needed pair of shoes to keep us in school.

    

   Due to the political issues in Africa, I was shunted off to boarding school at the age of 12. I learned to fend for myself. After I fell in with bad company, only the grace of God kept me sober and out of jail. Because of a pharisaical, legalistic emphasis at the school, I was persuaded that I had out-sinned God’s grace and was destined for eternal punishment. A young soldier took an interest in me and my soul; and refused to give up until I came to know the real grace of a loving God.

    

   After 12 years as missionaries in Africa, my wife and I returned to the States essentially penniless but happy and content in the Lord. Decades later we own our home and have been living out of debt for many years.

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   During the recent recession, my brother and both of my brothers-in-law, along with many others in the family, lost their jobs. I kept mine. Our children are all employed. Friends ask me why I didn’t retire earlier. I reply that as long as I enjoyed my job and I had the health, I’d continue working.

    

   Am I uncertain about the future? Yes! Indeed. But I am certain of one thing: we serve a marvelous God. He has blest us through 50 years of married life, through poverty but never want, through rough times but with a strong faith that the grace of God is still abundantly more than enough to meet our deepest needs. Retired now, we live comfortably with the assurance that this is but a prelude to the delightful inheritance awaiting us.

    

   Praise to You, Lord God Almighty, for the sure inheritance you have prepared for us!

  

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[i] http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/abc_wn_harris_jobs_120504_mn.jpg

   

Prioritize Your Priorities

2 Peter 1:10

The Voice (VOICE)

¹⁰ Therefore, brothers and sisters, work that much harder to confirm that God has called you and claimed you. If you do this, then you will never fall along the way.

Tom came to the university with a number of Advanced Placement courses. These are classes he took while in high school with special examinations that gave him college credit for them. He also attended two math summer camps where he learned how to reason mathematically, how to prove theorems. He expressed tremendous enthusiasm for doing math and becoming a mathematician. He had learned skills that the average math major learns during his sophomore and junior years in college. Tom wanted to graduate in three years, and we worked out a program that would let him do that. In the middle of his second year at university, he took the very prestigious Putnam examination. He scored better than 80% of the best undergraduate math students in the nation.

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Tom also wanted to earn a major in music. Both majors demand an unusual amount of work and practice outside of class. By the middle of his second year in college, it was becoming evident to me that he was spending a lot more time on his music than he was with mathematics. Because he had tremendous natural ability in math, he was still passing his math classes, but his mastery was slipping. He neglected his homework, which had the gradual result that his abilities to progress in math were slipping and becoming more and more anemic. In the end he graduated with majors in both fields. In music he excelled and went on to one of the most prestigious schools of music in the nation. Meantime, however, he has lost interest in doing advanced mathematics.

In my own life I have a major career in mathematics; I also have commitment to the cause of Christ. I have faith that by the grace of Christ I am saved and will “graduate” into heaven. Peter’s concern is that I run the danger of not putting enough effort into God’s calling in my own life and thereby losing interest in my eternal destiny, to the point that I turn away from my eternal salvation.

Lord, help me invest sufficient time and effort in following You to confirm that You have “called me and claimed me”.

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[i] http://www.topuniversities.com/student-info/careers-advice/what-can-you-do-mathematics-degree