We have a new family member a three year old (Part 4)… beagle named Anne.

I told you in Part 3 that she ran away after writing about the first adventure well after writing last week’s continuing saga she disappeared again. The usual components were involved Barbara (my wife), Jake (the cat) and Anne (the spooky dog). Yes, she was gone that night and yes she was in the driveway the next morning no worse for wear.

A missing pet, keys, homework, project etc. all can be aggravating. The loss is bad, the questions worse. What if I’d…always leads nowhere and to no solution but we go there anyway. If we are not careful it will define our day and in the most extreme situations a traumatic event by our own hand or others can define us and our lives.

What defines you? Who and or what do you allow to define you and your day? Does traffic make of break your day? Do you co workers make or break you day? The coffee pot running over or failing to make that morning, does that define the day. Does that spill on your blouse ruin your day? Does that horrible trauma that you suffered as a child define you as a victim? Sure, any one of these moments may require us to change our direction for a short while. They may cause a drastic change in how we live and where. But do they define us, all of us? Do we allow the events of our lives to define us rather than us defining them?

I spoke of the story of David and Bathsheba last Sunday. That story is filled with opportunity and the willful disregard of the opportunity. David was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, looked too long, learned too much, went too far, arranged a cover-up, underestimated honor and premeditated murder. Anywhere along the way he could have stopped but he did not. Sin always takes you farther than you want to go and costs more than you want to pay. In this case the price was continued war, a family of calamity and death; the child conceived in the adultery would die all of this from “a man after God’s own heart.”How can that be?

How can a man after God’s own heart, of whom it was said “from that day on the Spirit of the Lord came upon” (1 Sam. 16:13) do such things? How can the boy who killed a giant not defeat his own lust? The answer is found not “blowing in the wind” but rather in the mirror. The one you look into each day and see yourself. How could you do that or how could you have said that and you call yourself a Christian? It’s easy when we allow our circumstances to dictate our actions, when we allow our situation to define us, when we allow our feelings to be our compass. Does it have to be like that? The answer is No.

David knew this. After his child died as a result of his actions, David was told his son was dead and he 20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. (2 Samuel 12:20 NIV). That’s just not normal is it? His son has just died because of his sin. He is responsible. Any good Christian would beat himself up every day of his life for the rest of his life, certainly not wash, smell good, put on clean clothes worship God and eat! God had defined David into this King and was using this horrible series of events to define David. He was a man after God’s own heart and knew God would forgive him not without consequences but forgiven.

Hear these words of God 17…Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there. God…defines your life. (1 Corinthians 7:17 The Message). God uses people, places and events to transform us into the image of Christ. God is shaping us even in our sin. God is at work defining us into his children. Christ defined the cross forever. The cross has never had the same meaning. Instead of a symbol of death Jesus defined it as life. Instead of a symbol of hopelessness Jesus defined it as a symbol of hope for all mankind. In all things allow God to define you the situation, event and your feelings. Look what he did with the cross and the tomb? He is doing that in you!

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG