February 14

“I noticed that the emptied trash cans left out front too long by the neighbors who were my friends didn’t bother me like the ones left out by neighbors I didn’t know.”  Me, 2/13/03

Something I read this morning by Thomas Kelly (a Quaker writer of the 1900’s) triggered in my mind what I’d written yesterday.  He wrote in 1941 how men and women in Germany, Italy, and Russia had joyfully committed their all to the State because they saw the State as “noble, glorious, and ideal.”  This brought to my mind how each of us must be careful NOT to make friends with things/ideas/situations, whatever, that aren’t of God because my analogy works both ways.  My own bad habits, shortcomings, and failings should never be “made friends with.”  Otherwise, I will begin to tolerate them, perhaps even love them after awhile.  I must always be careful.  A bad habit may not be a sin at first, but there’s no denying it can become so if we harbor it by giving it a safe haven within us--accepting it as “just who I am.”  God is willing and able to free us from these types of strongholds but we must no longer befriend them.

“For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”  Luke 12:34