Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes. (Ecclesiastes 7:18, NIV)
Believe me, if I could walk every round of golf, I would. It’s good for you, and it’s the classic way to go. But sometimes it doesn’t make sense.
It doesn’t make sense when talking with your partner is your top priority for the day.
It doesn’t make sense when you’re trying to beat the darkness of early sunsets.
It doesn’t make sense when you’re playing in the cycle between chemotherapy treatments.
I’ve experienced all of these, so when it comes to walking, I’m not religious about it.
In truth, I’m not religious about a lot of things. Maybe I should be. Maybe I should care more or try harder or argue louder. Maybe I should always vote the party line and take the same route home and play only one brand of golf ball.
The funny thing is that God’s word doesn’t call this very wise. Oh, I’m supposed to have all my eggs in the Jesus basket, that’s for sure. But when it comes to the stuff of earth, balance is the way to go.
Choose wisely. Act accordingly. Reflect Christ in you.When late in his years Solomon stepped back and wrote his observations in Ecclesiastes, he said that even our righteousness should not be overdone. It makes sense, really. A humble person knows he’ll never get it all right. There’s not one person on earth who doesn’t sin, Solomon went on to say. When we get caught up in trying, we make worse decisions still—decisions born from perfectionism and its commensurate stress. Stop it!
In the same way, though, we must not run hard to the other side. We may fall into sin, but we should not approve for ourselves a day of iniquity. People have died doing such, Solomon noted. We’re fools to go in that direction. Stop that too!
When Eugene Peterson paraphrased our verse today in The Message, he wrote, “A person who fears God deals responsibly with all of reality, not just a piece of it.” I think he was echoing Paul, too, for the apostle told the Ephesians to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise” (Ephesians 5:15, KJV). Look around you. Choose wisely. Act accordingly. Reflect Christ in you.
Come Thursday, if you’re one of our many readers celebrating Thanksgiving Day, you’ll get two chances to act out wise balance—in your eating and in your sharing the time with others. By showing the humility of avoiding extremes, you just might transfer a helping of God’s wisdom from you to someone who needs it right now.
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Jeff Hopper
November 20, 2018
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.