An aircraft carrier in space is headed your way. This morning’s USA Today introduces us to asteroid 2005 YU55, a carbon-colored space rock measuring some 1,300 feet wide. If it landed in the ocean, it would trigger a magnitude-7.0 earthquake and 70-foot-high tsunami waves some 60 miles away. The good news is that it will miss us by 202,000 miles, although it will be closer to our planet than the moon. We won’t see another asteroid of its size until 2028.
The bad news is that it is just one of 1,262 asteroids deemed “potentially hazardous” by NASA. One scientist states the obvious: “We want to study these asteroids so if one does look like it may hit us someday, we’ll know what to do about it.” Best of luck with that.
A Chinese proverb warns: “To predict is difficult, especially with regard to the future.” When Kim Kardashian married Kris Humphries on August 20th, who knew the couple would break up in only 72 days? When Sony helped pioneer flat-screen televisions, who predicted they would lose nearly $8.5 billion selling them over the next eight years? Today’s Wall Street Journal blames the loss on intense competition from manufacturers in China, South Korea, and Taiwan, as well as declining prices for the product.
How do we prepare for such an uncertain future? This week I’ve been studying Psalm 1 in my personal worship. The psalmist describes the person God can bless: “his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (v. 2). “Meditates” translates the Hebrew word hagah, to think about, ruminate on, internalize. To meditate on God’s word, read and study it, then apply it to your life. Seek its counsel when you make decisions and face temptations. Stay obedient to its truth all day long.
When you do, you are like “a tree planted by streams of water” (v. 3). Here’s the part I didn’t know until yesterday: “streams” translates pelagga, the Hebrew word for irrigation canals. When you choose to live biblically, God “waters” your soul with his word as a farmer waters a tree. In times of drought, he digs irrigation channels and ensures that the tree has all the water it needs. So it is with your soul.
This morning I read this assertion in Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost For His Highest: “My personal life may be crowded with small petty incidents . . . but if I obey Jesus Christ in the haphazard circumstances, they become pinholes through which I see the face of God, and when I stand face to face with God I will discover that through my obedience thousands were blessed.”
What decisions, problems, and opportunities do you expect to face today? What does God’s word say about them? If you live biblically, they will become pinholes of grace.
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