Meditative Musings

 

I have been volunteering weekly at the local Salvation Army, sorting linen and clothes for those who lost theirs in the recent cyclone.

 

It has provided some interesting thoughts!

 

As I walked into the room this morning I noticed an unpleasant, musty, old smell due to the room being closed up overnight. As I emptied boxes and found appropriate places for their contents, I wondered what sort of stink my sin produces when I close my heart to God’s commandments. Isaiah 65:5 says ‘yet they say to each other, 'Don't come too close or you will defile me! I am holier than you!’ These people are a stench in my nostrils, an acrid smell that never goes away.’ Jude 1: 22-23 says ‘Go easy on those who hesitate in the faith. Go after those who take the wrong way. Be tender with sinners, but not soft on sin. The sin itself stinks to high heaven.’ I guess that is where the saying comes from regarding something stinking to high heaven! Well, I have to admit that in spite of every effort to listen to the Holy Spirit, there will be times my sin ‘stinks to high heaven’—a stench in God’s nostrils. What a sobering thought.

 

I was delighted to find a carton full of packets of new underwear, mainly for children. How wonderful that people were prepared to donate new items of underwear. I have noticed that some donations are extremely old and stained. Is that disrespectful to those in need? Do they deserve the best we can give? I leave you to debate that question.

 

I asked the supervisor, “Is it OK to leave these in packs? It seems to me that if children need underwear they will need a pack.”

 

“Absolutely,” she replied. “Unfortunately, we have had some people come in and they will take every pack if not checked. So we have to be quick to limit numbers to leave some for others.”

 

Again I pondered on that. I think it is a human condition to put yourself and your family before others, and I have to continually work on being unselfish. Thinking about taking more than we need I remembered the Israelites who collected more manna than needed for the day in spite of God’s instructions to the contrary. Next morning the manna had worms and it stunk. There’s that word again. Their sin created a stench!

 

Oh boy, when I arrived to do my voluntary work this morning, little did I know God was going to do a work in my spirit.