A Broke Evangelist

November 1, 2024

Psalm 119:164

“Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.” 

I recently spent a month studying Proverbs, and it was a fantastic experience. I learned a lot, and I loved sharing those insights with others. I hope it blessed you as much as it blessed me.

A couple of nights ago, though, I was feeling a bit lazy. It was late, and I confessed to my wife, Kathy, that I was struggling to keep writing, especially since I wasn’t getting much response. Maybe my topics seemed dry to some, or maybe I just don’t have a huge following yet. Kathy, in her wisdom, pointed out that my posts might be hard to read because the font was so small. She suggested that while the app I was using works great for flyers, it’s not the best for long written content. So, I set up a new Gmail account, created a web page, and now am using that as well as Substack so people can read my writing more easily.

Today, as I was reading Psalm 119, one verse really stood out: “Seven times a day I praise you for your righteous laws.” Those are the words of a dedicated prayer warrior! I thought, “Wow, I wish I could do that.” I started planning: two times a day? Sure—morning and night are easy. But what about the other five? I figured I could squeeze in a few more: mid-morning, lunchtime, mid-afternoon, dinner, and maybe right before bed. Just a couple of minutes to thank the Creator for getting me through the day so far.

I’ve always been a “pray as you go” kind of guy, and this approach makes a lot of sense. I tend to try and do too much at once, but it’s the small, steady steps that really work for me.

So, as I speak of this simple game plan, I need to change direction slightly: 

Right now, in this heated political climate where opinions are flying from all sides (including mine!), I want to stay focused on what really matters. I like pointing out the absurdities in the media, especially since one side seems to be doing a lot of hand-wringing. To be fair, my side has its moments too! But win or lose, life goes on. If my side wins, the other side may throw fits and predict the apocalypse. If my side loses, we’ll get up, get dressed, and keep going as usual. Hopefully, we won’t see any more outbursts like January 6.

But for me, November 6 will come and go, and I’ll celebrate two things close to my heart: my 44th wedding anniversary with my wonderful wife and friend, this day falling the day after my 65th birthday. I’ll spend both days praying seven times, celebrating our life together, and letting the political chips fall where they may. 

Mostly because I want to make my walk with Jesus simple. And this is why:

I had a conversation with a friend about all the accusations against President Trump, some of which date back 15-20 years before he even considered running for office. Now, I’m not excusing his past behavior, but when I look at the last 10 years, aside from some sharp comments and mean tweets, there’s not much in the way of major scandals (caused by him - the opposing media and political parties have been largely responsible for the chaos). It reminded me of when I got saved nearly 38 years ago. I ran into an old friend at a gas station, and when I told him I’d accepted Jesus, he was thrilled! Later, he admitted he’d been a little shocked, remembering my rough language and humor. But my transition wasn’t that hard—I wanted to change, so I did, and did so in no time at all. I still had some habits to get rid of but the major stuff was gone. I didn't need to smoke, drink, tell crude jokes, swear, and all the fun stuff that you get to do when you're a heathen (I still got fat, though, so it's not foolproof).

Reflecting on that has made me realize how much I overcomplicated my faith journey. Back then, my first steps as a believer were simple because I genuinely wanted the change. I didn't realize how much I was like the man at the fountain waiting for healing. You know the story: Jesus said, "do you want to be healed?" And the man said, "You bet! So, it appears that the harder I tried to “heal myself,” the more I failed. I failed to see how I need to let Jesus heal me instead of struggling to heal myself.

So with all that’s going on, I’m focusing on just being myself, cracking a joke or two about the absurdity of politics, especially when some things just make me scratch my head and think, “Are they really that clueless?”

But I digress… Let me encourage you to let Jesus do the healing and stop trying to do it all yourself. Try those small steps, like praying seven times a day, even if it’s just to give thanks for getting through the day. Living fully and joyfully, I believe, is one of the greatest gifts God can give us, and I wish that for you too.

That’s all for now… let’s see what the next few days bring!

A Broke Evangelist - November 1, 2024

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