Gorged on Intelligence

“Brilliant!” We all like to claim. What I’ve learned is that knowledge without wisdom is useless.

Gathering information like squirrels gather nuts, we all run around trying to protect ourselves with it. Our stomachs are bloated with knowledge and our souls are sick from lack of rest.

“Learn more about your pain, do more self-care, promote your well-being,” and the list goes on and on.

Coming out of this holiday season I have to say I am full of graceful enjoyment. I did little self-care other than breathe in the love of those around me and a great big God who goes out of His way to care for me.

It was easy. So easy it was almost dull in the fashion that I have lived. And, I loved it.

My mind tried to race through times and people from my past. But, I held steady to the future and gleaned from the ray of hope that is held there.

¹⁷ Since you call on a Father who judges each person’s work impartially, live out your time as foreigners here in reverent fear. ¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, ¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect

I Peter I: 17-18

“The empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors.” That pretty much sums up my past and I’m not returning to it.

I strive now towards the goal of living in freedom. Working for a God that has a mission of loving His people.

For 2021, I pray the prayer of Jabez over me and my family. It’s hidden in the book of Chronicles.

The name Jabez means “he causes pain,” so it is assumed that something about his birth was exceptionally more painful than the usual birth – either physically or emotionally. In Bible times, a name was very important. A name often defined a person’s future – what they would become. So perhaps Jabez’s mother was predicting her baby’s future.

Jabez defied his hopeless name and dysfunctional beginning to become a man who believed fervently in the power of God. He prayed with urgency and vulnerability. He cried out to the Lord with boldness!

I will not let my past define me nor will I let it predict my future. Here’s to a full 2021!