Steve-o's Devos: A Daily Offering

How do you wake up each morning? Are you one of those jump out of bed and take on the day sort of people? Or do you more reluctantly slide out and stumble about until finding the right amount of caffeine to get you started? At different points in my life, I have to admit that both of those ways of greeting the day have been possible. When I was a kid, getting up early for school often felt like a chore. When I was older, I used to accompany my father down to the local cafe for coffee and conversation with other folks that met there. It was a chance to seem like an adult and to spend time with my dad too. I think sometimes he tried to go earlier and earlier just to see if I was still going to get up and be ready when he left.

Depending on where you are on any given day, a new morning can be quite an amazing thing. It gives you a chance to "do-over" the stuff you did wrong the day before, or it gives you a chance to do something new. Face it though, there are days when we wish we should have stayed in bed, days when we had a big test or job interview coming up, days when a major event was causing us stress... It is hard to start the day when we begin it with any sort of anxiety and expect that it can turn out with a great result. Ever find yourself saying or thinking, "I just need to get through this day!"

This is where Paul's reminder (click on the title above) from Romans is so amazing and encouraging. Paul reminds us that each day is a gift but we need to be able to take our everyday, ordinary way of living and place it before God as an offering. "Here, take my day and use it as you will, God." Paul encourages us to not let our surrounding culture drag us down into its level of immaturity and fancifulness. Something perhaps easier to say than do.

But these thoughts from Paul do make a lot of sense and made me think of the Olympic games going on now. Though not much of a sports fan, I have found myself drawn to several of the events as they appear on television. There is something intricately engaging in watching people at the top of their game, sharing their gifts in such a public way. What strikes me is the sideline commentary. Sportscasters no doubt are doing there job talking while something few people watching understand plays out on the athletic stage. Too often though, the commentators share asides about a particular athlete's performance that seems almost minuscule in comparison to the accomplishment. Yes, it is a "competition" to see who is the greatest at their sport, but is it not also just a wonderful opportunity to know you are surrounded by the best athletes in your field?

There have been a couple of times when I wondered what the relationships were with the athlete and their coach, especially when the coach was their parent. If they had not gotten a medal, would they still feel loved? valued? Or would they return home feeling like a failure thinking a bronze was not good enough? It is food for thought.

So while I have been watching the games, I also wondered what it might be like if we had our own on-side commentators following our every day moves. Think about this for a minute. "Steve has begun his day there, and, oops, dropped the soap now that is going to cost him some time. Looks like one of the cats has left him a little treat on the floor to clean up this morning, so he may have to skip breakfast today and grab something on the road if he still wants to get to his meeting on time today. Now it looked like maybe he would not have to do that earlier, but hitting that snooze button twice really put him back time-wise. Well, he's now in his car and...WOW, did you see that, no cars coming and he could just coast right out onto the road there and he's taking the shortcut so that will help add some time to his day." Well you get the drift.

If we spent all of our time worrying about the people in our lives who comment from the sidelines we really would not be able to focus on who we are called to be. Paul illustrates this perfectly in this passage from Romans (chapter 12, verses 1-8). Each of us has something to offer and we get meaning in our lives by living out the part that we are to play to the fullest. We offer our day as an opportunity to live out our giftedness so that we may fully be who we are. Paul's final reminder is that we should do things joyously, with a smile on our face no matter what may happen along the way. (I think that is why I always like the character Jim on The Office!)

How appropriate then that we are gathering to talk about life's pressures. Pressures often felt because we either overhear, or think we know the running critical commentary of those around us. Consider smiling a bit more...at the very least, everyone will wonder what you are up to! Amen.