Sticky Fingers!

Have I ever mentioned the fact that I hate having sticky fingers?  This morning as I was helping my wife with breakfast, I skewed a tiny wedge of pancake smothered in syrup and gave it to her.  In the process though, I proceeded to get sticky syrup all over the handle of the fork and you guessed it… all over my fingers!  I was not a happy camper.  So I grabbed a paper napkin and tried to wipe it off but only succeeded in tearing it up and leaving bits of paper stuck to my hand!  I finally got up and went to the sink so as to wash my fingers and the fork.

That exercise in the proper use and care of breakfast utensils got me to thinking about my study on being HAPPY and lessons learned over the last six years.  It reminded me of how I had to eventually go to the sink in my heart and wash off some of the sticky ways and patterns of my past in order to glide like Teflon into our future.  In Psalm 119:24 David exclaims: “Indeed, your written instructions make me HAPPY.  They are my best friends.”  (God’s Word ©)

I’ve told before of the three things that the Lord told my wife and I to do when we returned to our hometown after our stay in Oklahoma.  One of those instructions was to reconnect with our network of family and friends.  When I heard this I just assumed that we would go back and easily slide right back into a similar routine that we had before we left.  But boy… was I ever mistaken!  As I’ve also mentioned before, upon our return we discovered that just about EVERYTHING was or was soon to be different!  It took me a few years to totally figure things out, but I finally realized that we could not stick to our past if we were going to ably jump in the fray and win the fight for my wife’s health.

This morning I thought back to one of the scriptures we looked at last week in Romans 1:16 where Paul declares: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation…” (KJV)  And it dawned on me that I am not ashamed of the gospel, but I sure have found myself being ashamed at the way some Christians represent the gospel by their words and actions.  That thought can most accurately describe some of the eye-opening lessons I learned with many of the adverse comments and actions that came from folks we loved and trusted and expected support from.

Looking back now, I can see that the Lord was trying to tell us that when push comes to shove, that His Word is the only thing that we as Christians can really depend on.  Kind of like David’s comment that God’s Words are his best friends!  No wonder he declared that the Word made him HAPPY.  When some of our family deserted us, we quickly understood the truth behind the words spoken in Proverbs 18:24 where it is explained that “… a loving friend can stick closer than family.” (God’s Word ©)

I guess that this is the kind of Godly love where stickiness is a good thing!  That sticky is one of those things that makes us HAPPY!  So if I’ve got this right… sticking with God’s Word is one of His ways for us to be truly HAPPY.  If His Word is our best friend, then it is one of the first places we should go in good times as well as in the bad.

It is one of the many lessons we learned in this particular part of the journey of our lives.  It is the kind of HAPPY that isn’t dependent on your circumstances, neither on what you see nor on how you feel.  For us it has been the “power of God” for our physical, spiritual and emotional salvation, even when things seem to get worse instead of better.  So I guess that if I have to get sticky… I’d best get stuck on the best friendship of His Word so that I can experience real HAPPINESS… How about you?

Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What or Whom am I expecting to get STUCK on today?”