Day #30
Larry Trotter
Words
of Love
45 A
good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth
speaks what the heart is full of. Luke 6: 45 NIV
Overcoming the barrier
Some of my favorite
memories of growing up involve scouting, especially weeks spent at Camp Buck
Toms nestled in a cove on Watts Bar Lake. I learned great lessons about nature,
teamwork, and self-confidence, as well as homesickness, poison ivy, and how
aggressive ducks can be when they think your finger is a piece of bread from
the dining hall. And speaking of the dining hall, I learned a lesson there that
only later would I realize had biblical ramifications. Every scout spent one
day or three meals on KP. Teams were formed to set up your troops’ tables with
food and accompaniments and then clean up everything. The clean up regimen is
where I watched the kingdom lesson unfold. The dining hall steward was
affectionately (I suppose) called “motor-mouth” in deference to the speed with
which he dispatched information to his KP teams. He would walk the dining hall
with a jug containing a nasty solution of ammonia and water and splash some
across every table. Scouts were given a bowl of sponges to spread the ammonia
and clean up the mess. On occasion said scouts had been known to toss the wet
sponges at each other, which is strictly conjecture—I have no firsthand
knowledge of such inappropriate behavior as far as you know. On one particular
morning while cleaning up breakfast, which included oatmeal, one of our scouts
not on KP swooped by the table on the way out and turned over large bowl of
leftover oatmeal as a prank. One of our team members saw it and, as the
offender was running out, picked up a sponge that he, in his defense, thought
was soaked with water. He called the offender an unflattering name as he was
about to go out the door. Hearing it and considering it a challenge he turned
back toward us. Unfortunately for him, the name caller had launched a perfectly
timed sponge his way and when the boy turned it hit him squarely in the face.
That’s when it all went bad. The sponge he threw had in fact been sitting in a
puddle of ammonia on the table. It splashed in his mouth and eyes requiring
immediate medical attention. After a few minutes of screaming interrupted by coughing
and vomiting, he was fine. The name-calling sponge thrower was going to be sent
home, but the sponge’s target successfully negotiated a reprieve for his
friend.
This would be a
great time to talk about forgiveness, but that’s not today’s topic. The one who
threw the sponge thought his projectile was simply soaked with water. It turns
out that it was filled with something toxic that was only identified when it
came out under pressure and caused harm. This gets at the essence of Jesus’ point
in the verse, above. The brief passage begins with the observation that a good
tree can’t bear bad fruit and vice versa. The metaphor quickly shifts from
horticulture to human culture. This verse is part of the “sermon on the plain”
as it’s called in Luke and is similar to Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount. Jesus
teaches about the last being first, loving even our enemies, and not judging
others. The passage immediately following this verse speaks of a wise person
building their life on the solid foundation of his words. When we find
ourselves under pressure what comes out? What are we storing up in our hearts?
It’s amazing how even a little time consistently spent with God in prayer,
Scripture reading, fellowship with other believers, and service to others can allow
the love of Christ to overcome the evil that can collect from the culture in
which we live. We’re all sponges. What will we soak up, today?
Prayer
Holy God, reach into my heart and evaluate its
contents. Fill me with your things so that when life squeezes me, your things
will come out. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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