Vanity or a Call to Service?

Photo by charlotte 202003 at Pixabay

I read a beautiful story about a family called to feed and care for the local homeless. It pricked my conscious. Should I set aside my desires to write and paint and instead do more volunteer work? At my age, I don’t have the physical stamina to do both. Perhaps my writing and painting are vain things best put aside for the benefit of others.


Then, why would God give me the desire and the talent to pursue those activities if they had no value, did not provide any blessings?


I spent several days praying to know His will, vowing to follow wherever He sent me.


Today, in my devotional, Good Morning, Lord Joseph T. Sullivan wrote: “… Lord, inspire those who create beauty for us: the sculptor, the writer, the composer, the architect, the painter, the virtuoso… They can show us what you are like and render great service to us all.”

I had not considered my talents as a service.

Although I am not called to run a homeless shelter or a soup kitchen, I am still required to be generous for the poor, the homeless, and others in need where and when I can.

Freed from guilt, I can joyously use my talents to help others see the beauty in our world, pointing out rainbows where some only see mud.


Lord, inspire me to use the talents you have given me wisely and generously. Amen.

The Agony of Planning Too Far Ahead

I do it every time. I over plan, over prepare, and work myself to exhaustion with the false idea it will give me some control over the future. Then, the circumstances change, rendering all my work useless. What did I gain? Nothing, except precious moments I can never reclaim.

The story of the rich man in the Bible is a good example of wasting one’s life, and sadly, I am far too much like him. He figured once he had built enough barns to store several years of harvest, he could relax and enjoy life. He was foolish, wasting his life working toward a goal he would not live to see completed. He thought he was wise. I thought the same of my foolish shenanigans, until things changed and all my work proved useless.

Jesus said, “Be not solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.”  Matthew 6:34

I wish I had listened and enjoyed more of the good things God provided in the present. It is far better to make tentative plans for the future — without over planning or over preparing. As someone once told me, “If you don’t like what is happening today, wait six months. It will all change.” In my experience, things can change much sooner than that, and right when I least expect the change.  

The final reprimand came from, 1 Corinthians 3:19. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written: ‘I will catch the wise in their own craftiness.’”

Caught, all I could do was shake my head and laugh. Maybe I finally learned my lesson about the endless To-Do-List, the one extending months in advance. Perhaps I should model myself a bit more like Aesop’s grasshopper, with only a tiny bit of ant mixed in….

Are You Listening?

Photo by Serge Bertasius Photography at FreeDigitalPhotos.net        

I don't always listen. Even in my more advanced age, I still act like a willful child and try my way first. Sometimes that’s a good idea, other times I pay a painful price for not heeding the advice of those more experienced.

One of those painful lessons happened recently. Writing pros suggest one of the best methods of self-editing and proofreading is to read the text aloud. I tried, but found the chore tedious, not to mention tough on the voice, and in my infinite wisdom decided to skip that part. Oh, I did submit the manuscript to my critique partner and to Beta Readers, but after implementing their suggestions and corrections, I took it upon myself to make some further changes. Not wrong, by any means, until I did the proofreading myself, without showing it to anyone else, or following the pros advice to read the new text aloud.

The result? I am now hanging my head in shame over simple mistakes that could have been avoided, if only I had listened to those who tried to advise me. I am going through each book and correcting the errors, but I cringe thinking about how many flawed copies are now floating around out there in cyberspace — forever — because of my laziness, not to mention stubbornness.