Walking with God day by day

I don’t really remember knowing my grandpa. My dad’s father had a stroke when I was young, so my only memory of him was being immobilized in a chair, staring blankly at a TV. My other grandpa died before I was born. My brother bares his name, Timothy Arthur. Art had been a ranking officer in the navy. He was an engineer and an inventor. As a kind of memorial, my grandmother left his workbench untouched in the basement, tools and equipment gathering dust, waiting to be used by their passed-away owner. I used to pick up the antiquated electronics pieces, wonder about their use, wonder what he had been like.

Grandpa Chase is a neat man, married to one woman all his life, retired teacher, full of stories, Daryl’s grandfather. I remember one day I asked him if he had fought in any wars. He said “yes, WWII.” What did you remember? What was it like? Did you get shot at? “No, I didn’t get shot. I was stationed in Korea.” I tried to recall the battles, and couldn’t remember one over Korea. Then he said, “I was a mailman, I sorted mail, that’s what I did for the war. I didn’t shoot anybody, and I didn’t get shot at. But you should have seen the looks on their faces when I would deliver the mail bags.”

This week I’ve started reading in Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 26:1 The divisions of the gatekeepers: From the Korahites: Meshelemiah son of Kore, one of the sons of Asaph 2 Meshelemiah had sons: Zechariah the firstborn, Jediael the second, Zebadiah the third, Jathniel the fourth, 3 Elam the fifth, Jehohanan the sixth and Eliehoenai the seventh. …

You have to realize, these 3 verses are just one part of 4 chapters, 132 verses listing the divisions of priests, rotations for temple duty, divisions for musician groups, regions for their ministry, divisions of gatekeepers, the gates they guarded, the army leaders, family leaders, really really boring stuff.

And as I thought about these lists of people, and Grandpa Chase, and walking with God, I tried to imagine what each day was like for them.

Zecharaiah: “Hey Jedial, how’d your day go?”

Jed.: “You know, the usual, we had some weary families coming through our gate, some disputes to settle, a LOT of sheep, man they stink. How bout you?”

Zech.: “Yeah, yeah, a lot of the same. Hey, did you hear about Jashobeam’s division, he’s on army guard this month, I hear they’re going to the northern front. I wish I was there instead of counting people and sheep every day.”

I don’t know what your days are like. Want to know my week? Let’s see, I took a day off because we’ve had a month of visitors and short term teams straight. I spent half a day on the phone, one day just buying supplies and renting a bus for the next team to arrive on Monday, 2 full days doing financial reports, gave 6 baths, 21 goodnight kisses, 30 bedtime stories. And I find myself having similar conversations in my head.

Me: “What did I do today…? reports, errands, phone calls,… buying paint for the orphanage.”

Myself: “Did you hear about the missionary family in Zim-exiting-wayia? They planted 3 churches last month, and saw 500 people come to Christ. What did you do again?”

I: “Uh, wow, sure sounds great there… I spent all day doing a month of accounting work. Wish I was doing something more important like those guys.”

Anyway, back to Chronicles, the Holy Spirit spoke to me as I read, and reminded me of a verse in Micah.

Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

God places each person in a different place. Grandpa Chase served our country by sorting mail. My other Grandpa was a navy engineer. Not every soldier jumps out of planes, or mucks through trenches. Each name in those 4 chapters of Chronicles was given a job, a job assigned by King David, and it was important, even standing watch over sheep going in and out of the gate.

I’m learning that walking with God isn’t always exciting, filled with things that make great prayer letters, noticeable things. I learning to obey, to work hard for Him not for others, to be faithful to the tasks He gives, to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly even when I’m buying paint. And He’s pleased with that, that’s what my God, my King requires of me.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for the day. I'm already late for a lunch meeting, and then off to a travel agent, and then a goodbye dinner for a friend leaving the country.

Thanks God for Chronicles. Enjoy your day!

Dan