Lord, for years I heard the same Sunday message, about caring for the poor. Then we gave our offerings, and ate our breakfast and came home. Next week, we would do it all again. So what was I missing? Why the feeling of missing? What is it I want to hear?
You want to hear what everyone secretly wants to hear, that your life makes a difference. Not the five minutes it takes to decide whom to write your check to—all the other minutes. And it does. You have no idea how far a couple of hours with you, a few minutes with you will take those you encounter.
If your life was like a peach, what would you do with it? Would you eat it all, savoring each bite? Or would you stare at it on the counter, wondering if it was ripe enough, wondering how you’ll manage if you eat it all too quickly, until it rots there, waiting—as you wait—when I Am Lord of the Orchard! Eat your life! Enjoy the sweetness in every day. Let your own life and its particular joys nourish you once again.
Count your joys and watch them multiply. If you will eat of My Joy, then everything else you desire—health, financial stability—will also be yours. If it doesn’t make you happy, don’t think it, don’t wear it, don’t buy it, don’t photograph it, don’t entertain it, don’t welcome it in.