Kick Back and Have a Beer and Let the Holy Spirit Do His Thing

Pastor often refers to the quote from Luther about preaching and then going home and having a beer. Yesterday in Bible class, he was again talking about our inability to control results. We can only do what we've been called to do. He preaches. He cannot control whether anyone believes what he says. Too often preachers fret about whether they said the right thing, or said it the right way, or if they should add more, or any number of other questions about how they did it.

I suppose this has been told me before (but if so, I forgot): I bet this goes for people who aren't preachers too. I bet this goes for situations that aren't about sharing the gospel. I bet this applies to mommyhood.

You do what you can do to feed the family nutrition meals. But you can't do it all as well as you should. And God takes care of it.

You weed the garden and you water and you add manure to the soil. But you can never do enough. But somehow, the tomato plants have developed little green tomatoes and the baby berry canes & grape vines are growing prettily.

You do what you can to teach the children how to read and think and spell and do their chores. But you can never teach them enough. You can never instill all the good habits you should. There are gaping holes, whether the kids are homeschooled or conventionally schooled. But God will use our efforts even though we can't Do It Right or Do It Well-Enough.

This ought be no excuse for me to waste so much time on the computer. Or for somebody else to fritter money away because, after all, God will provide. Or for somebody to live on Doritos and diet Mountain Dew and expect God to provide physical health. But some of us workaholics need to understand that sitting down and resting will not make the world fall apart. Maybe we can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but God can. And does.