Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Romans 3:19
Three times in one day I got stuck behind an old car that was rattling along the road instead of sitting in the junkyard, spewing out fumes of black smoke. I was choking but couldn’t get away, wedged in a small but formidable line of cars at a traffic light.
When it happened for the third time I began to get the message. I had been having a bad day at work and I had let folks know it. I was spewing out "stinking smoke," my bad attitude over the misplaced memo, the missed deadline, the incorrect editing. I was on the offensive … no, I was offensive.
I knew it was time to change; to clean up my act. Despite the many things that can go wrong in a day, there is no reason to spew out my personal pollution on everyone around me. We live in a small community with no public transportation. There are reasons people drive marginal cars. Some may smell offensive, but there is never an excuse for my offensive behavior. Lent is a good time to commit to a change: to confess to Christ to cleanse our sins and give us the power to reflect His love in our daily lives.
It’s a daily discipline. If I forget, I know it won’t be long before I’m behind another wheezing car, reminding me to get a spiritual tune-up!
Prayer: Forgive my stench, Faithful Father, and “tune up” my life so that others may see You in me. In Jesus name. Amen.
Response: What sets you off? Ask God to help you give it up today.
(Devotions from "Cross of Ashes" by Christine Weerts, a Lenten devotional provided by Lutheran Hour Ministries. Copyright 2005, Int'l LLL. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend.)
Today's Bible Readings: Leviticus 3-5 Mark 5:21-43
To Download Devotion MP3 to your computer, right click here and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" or "Download Linked File As"