A Minute Meditation

We are all familiar with thermometers and thermostats. A thermometer registers the temperature around us. It reacts quickly to a cold breeze or the sun coming out. The thermostat rather than reacting to the outside temperature and going up or down as conditions change, strives to control the environment around it by counteracting the quick drop in temperature by the cold breeze by putting out some heat or cooling down the atmosphere by a burst of arctic air when the sun beats down upon it.

We find that most people are more like the thermometers while others try to be thermostats. The thermometers respond to a cold shoulder, a chilly remark or a cool reception with a plunge of their own mercury. A hot accusation or a heated remark will send thermometers skyrocketing upward. A cold rebuke can plunge those who are thermometers into the depths of despair but a warm suggestive look can cause them to soar out of control.

When we let God take control of our lives, we find that we can stop being thermometers and become thermostats. We can begin to change the climate around us rather than just registering it. When we allow God to set the dial, our environment always changes for the better. When God changes us, we act rather than react. We return a cold piercing glance with a tender look; we reply to the sharp tongue with a soft answer. An aloof stance can be melted with a loving caress and a clenched fist can be covered by a squeezed hand.

We can all learn how to become thermostats by following the example of our Lord. When he was reviled, “he reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not”, Jesus controlled the situation rather than being controlled by it.

Jesus would have us to be thermostats rather than thermometers for he told us, “For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.” This is a description of the thermometer, loving those that love them and hating those that hate them, reacting, not acting. Jesus continued, “And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.” Now, here comes the thermostat part. “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest; for he is kind unto the unthankful, and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.”

It’s easy to be a thermometer and almost everyone is. Just go up and down with the circumstances around us, like a puppet on a string being controlled by outside forces.

It is difficult, but not impossible to be a thermostat. Thermostats make a difference in the lives of those around them because they are in control rather than being controlled.

Let’s decide to be thermostats by allowing God to take control of our lives. When we decide to let God’s ways control us we will find that He will set our thermostats to do the right thing at the right time. All we need to do is, “trust in the Lord with all our hearts and lean not unto our own understanding, in all our ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct our paths.”

Recently we saw a sign which said something to this effect, “It’s not the mountain before me that is stopping me, it’s the pebble in my shoe that hurts when I climb.” It is true that we can sometimes scale great heights and then be defeated by something as small as a pebble in our shoe

What is stopping us from scaling the heights that we want to climb for the Lord? Paul was persuaded that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

If Paul could climb over all these obstacles on his way to the Kingdom, are we going to let pebble come between us and our Lord? What could a pebble in our shoe represent in our walk ti the Kingdom? Could apathy and indifference be our pebble? What about laziness or boredom?

Recently, we read that over one half of all the people in the United Stales and Canada are bored It went on to say that 75% of those over 65 are bored. It seems to be true of many young people today as well, for they often look bored and they frequently act bored with life.

How could anyone in love with Jesus Christ be bored? We are living in exciting times just prior to his return to this earth to make all the wrong things right. Life for us should be filled with joy with excitement, with anticipation. People who are bored usually lack commitment. Even people committed to a worldly goal are less likely to be bored than those with no goals at all. The Psalmist tells us, “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass.” Iota commitment to the Lord will reduce the pebble in our shoe to its proper size and we will be off am running up the mountain oblivious of the minor discomfort to our foot.

Contrast this with the bored, apathetic, lazy person who has nothing to do but think about that pebble. Life is full of pebbles but we have mountains to climb. “This is the day which the LORD hath made.” Now what are we going to do with it? Mope around because of the pebble in our shoe? Think about all our aches and pains, feel bored and maybe even go back to bed? Solomon tells us about the slothful man who said, “yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep.” “As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.”

The lazy, the slothful, the bored lie in bed or get up only to complain about the pebbles and all their other aches and pains while those who are totally committed to the Lord are leaping for joy. A pebble in the shoe doesn’t hurt when one is airborne and Jesus told us to “leap for joy.” Do we think he really meant this, or was our Savior just saying words? He tells us to “leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven.”

How exciting our life should be! What a great God is our God! What a wonderful hope is our hope! Truly we “will rejoice and be glad in this day which the LORD hath made.” “We can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us.” We have committed our way to the Lord and He will bring it to pass. Nothing shall separate us from the love of God. A pebble slow us down? Never. Are we committed? Are we persuaded as Paul was? that “neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is is Christ Jesus our Lord.”