Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Coloring our lives

Be careful what you add to your life. It changes you, it flavors you. All that we read, watch, take in affects us...affects who we are and how we act with those around us. Just a few drops of bitterness can change the color of a bright day and a bright life into something different, something we wouldn't want if we could see it in colors.

I've been praying for one specific comedian...for his salvation....for a long time, but as I watch him he continues to put "dark paint" into his life and continues to be bitter, angy, rude, an atheist. I will keep praying for him.

But be aware that we "color" our lives by what we put into them. Most lives end up being a muddy gray with no clarity, no distinct color, no brightness....just a mess of colors poured together. The picture we are painting is confusing, the life we are living does not tell anyone who we really are.

Choose your colors, choose what you read, what you watch, what you say, what you entertain, who you hang out with....choose them because they really do make a difference.

Here's a passage from Psalms that has fascinated me for a long time. It describes a man who isn't picky about the colors he puts into his life.

Psa 109:17 He also loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.
Psa 109:18 But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, And it entered into his body like water And like oil into his bones.
Psa 109:19 Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself, And for a belt with which he constantly girds himself.

It "colored" his life, how he thought, what he saw, and how he lived. Wow.

Choose your colors carefully, make your life a painting that will beautifully point to Christ as Lord of your life, and bring glory to God. We have enough "gray" people around us, paint your life in such a way that all who look at you will see a painting of Jesus.