TfTD – Room For God

A coworker invited me to his house party and I went. They lived in a nice section of the Washington area. He and his wife were celebrating an anniversary. Career-wise, they had done well and were retired. The guy was nice and always wore a smile on his face. He had been a successful educator and his was successful in her career.

She gave a speech that last 15 or 20 minutes and there was no mention of God in it, which is unusual in the African-American tradition. Most of it was about her. She mentioned her husband but her references to him always circled back to her. It was about her degrees, her accomplishments and the various positioned that she held.

The focus of her speech made me wonder how much self-revelation would be revealed if she could listen to a tape recording of her own speech. Maybe she could listen to it with a trusted friend. She seemed full of herself and I underscore the word, “seemed,” because this may not have been the case.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe it is absolutely great to do well and I encourage everyone to get as much education as they can get, and climb the ladders of success as high as they can climb but make sure that there is plenty of room for God. When we — Perry included — are too full of ourselves there is no room for the one who made it possible.

Somebody helped us get an education. Somebody chose us for the positions that we held and it was God who moved in their hearts to help us. The reason it is so important is because gratitude makes us want to help somebody.

There was a man in Scripture is described as a rich, young, ruler (Mark 10:17-27). He approached Jesus and inside of the conversation there was a hint of boasting about the things that he did. Jesus said,

“Sell all you have and come and follow me.”

There needs to be room for God in our lives. As for me,

“If I were dying with just one word to speak,

I’d speak it for Jesus and breathe my life away.

I’ll tell it wherever I go.”

PS: I was invited to a super bowl part today but I am not going. I normally don’t watch football but I am grateful for the invitation, but if I was going to go and watch it with somebody I would go to the nursing facility and watch it with my cousin who could use the company. I would do it because God has been good to me.

God bless.