More Than Trifles

I have two things to share today...More pictures from ANOTHER rainy day and some wise words.

The rain came yesterday and the pictures will be sprinkled throughout this post! 

Look at those clouds.

 

Rain drops and a puddle.

The rain was coming down, the air was fresh, and this little town was quiet again. 

It's so familiar and so ordinary. 

The words of wisdom come from a sermon by John Piper. He was talking about the book of Ruth from the Bible. This is a sermon series that I have listened to before...Today was a good day to go over it again.

At one point he said these words:

"Don't ever think that what you do in obedience to God in the midst of your set backs is insignificant." 

He went on to say "Isn't it true that one of the great diseases of our day is triviality? The things which most people spend most of their time with are trivial. What makes this a disease is that we were created to be consumed with magnificent causes not trifles. Our souls will not be content with trifles." 

Okay, is this true or what? Look around....At our conversations, the books we read, the magazines that line our grocery isles, the TV shows we watch, the textbooks in our schools, the activities at our churches, and the POSTS on our blogs. Sure, truth is often communicated, but it's all part of our little obsession with the trivial, the trifles. 

Meanwhile, "We are enslaved to trivialities...So our souls shrivel up, and our lives are trivial, and our capacity for great worship is dead."

I have been feeling this deadness. I have been feeling the enslavement. 

Sure, trivial things are necessary and we can certainly connect them to our worship of God. But, we can also MAKE them that which we worship. Getting in as much as we can in an attempt to be satisfied with this thing called life. 

The best smelling rose..."Judy Garland".

Piper continues, "The book of Ruth is written to teach us that God's purpose for your life is bigger than that. God's purpose is to connect His people with something infinite...God is preparing a demonstration for the principalities and high places of His own wisdom and He's doing it in your daily life."

Let me rephrase that...God is demonstrating His own wisdom in the daily lives of His people! 

God is demonstrating His own wisdom in my daily life! 

So, there will be trivial things. I can enjoy them. As I enjoy them, as I invest in them, I have been given opportunities to demonstrate the wisdom of God. 

I am preaching to myself, ladies. Those closest to me will remind me of these words and when they do, I'll wince. 

 

Rain drops on roses.

Some days (or months or years) we'll have "set backs" just like Ruth and Naomi. Some days we will wonder what the will of God is and how we ought to move forward. 

Some days we will find ourselves content to sit around with our little trifles and simply enjoy them for what they are. 

In both cases, let's step back and remind ourselves that we were made for more than trifles. 

We were made to demonstrate the wisdom of God. This demonstration consists of the events of our daily lives. All the days of our lives and each of our lives are woven together in TIME to tell of His greatness. 

Scrub the floors, hug the children, cry the tears, smell the roses, enjoy the people, make the decisions....but never forget, you were made for more.

You were made to know and love the Holy God. You were made to help others know and love Him too.