DEPENDABILITY: Character Quality # 19

This Sunday’s scripture: Psalm 62:5-8     Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.   He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

            Below is a great illustration I found concerning dependability.  I have added two questions at the end you may answer on the blog as a way to encourage others.  With this blog, I depend on you to read it and give a thoughtful response so we can grow together in the Lord.

When the Swallows Come Back . . .

“Yes, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young” (Psalm 84:3)

Church members tell me that, like their fabled cousins of Capistrano, the barn swallows come back each spring. As Jeremiah the prophet said, they know their “appointed time.”

Rapidly darting blurs of color, they busily built a nest of mud and twigs under the eaves near the main church door. One Saturday, a work-day crew member knocked the nest from its perch with water from a carefully aimed hose and then washed away the debris. “That should take care of that,” he said.

It didn’t. A week later, on Sunday, worshipers noted the nest had been rebuilt. Again, a church member destroyed it.

Within a week, the industrious birds had built a third nest. This action put the birds on the church executive board’s agenda. Some objected to the way the birds decorated the wall beneath the nest. Others said the bird’s chatter during worship was distracting. Still others argued that, as God’s creatures, they were entitled to build a nest wherever they chose.

The nature-lovers carried the day. It was agreed the barn swallows should be left undisturbed and a notice to that effect was posted beneath the nest.

I suspect that if we kept destroying the nest, the dependable swallows would spend the entire summer starting over. They had chosen their spot and, like Jesus when he “steadfastly set his face to go up to Jerusalem,” they were not to be turned aside.

If there’s a bit of contemporary jargon the church can embrace and employ, it’s the phrase, “Hang in there.” Too many in the church give up too soon. “We tried that once and it didn’t work…” is an easy excuse. “I don’t think that will work with our people…” has stopped more than one good proposal on the launching pad. To a generation wired for fast food and quick results, the 19^th century poet’s admonition, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again,” is both quaint and antiquated. The words of Edison, after another failure in creating a filament for his envisioned light bulb – “but I know a thousand ways it CAN’T be done” – no longer challenge us.

Consider the Scriptures: “Who endures to the end, will be saved” (Matt. 24:13); “No one who puts hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62); “Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing your labor in the Lord is not wasted” (1 Cor. 15:58); “Do not be weary or lose heart in doing right” (2 Thess. 3:13); “Let us hold fast without wavering the hope we cherish…” (Heb. 10:23); “We count them happy who endure” (James 5:11); “[Do not] fall from your own steadfastness” (2 Peter 3:17); “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life” (Rev. 2:10).

          Can God depend on you?  Give an example how God has depended on you or on someone you know.

          Can you depend on God?  Give an example of how you have depended on God.

From the Heart, Pastor Jeff