Skip to main content

He Works Better Than He Should

 
 Leo Marks would eventually become the head of ciphers and codes at Britain’s Special Operations Executive branch, the entity that was vital in World War Two in breaking and creating codes. However, he almost never got the chance to work there since his interview seemingly went terribly.

  When Marks took a codebreaking test that was supposed to take him no more than twenty minutes, it took him all day. Not very good work for a man wanting to be a codebreaker.

  There was however one issue. When they gave him the code, it was supposed to include the key for translating the message. They never gave it to him. Without the key, the cipher was supposed to be uncrackable. Marks had proved it wasn’t.

It wasn’t that he had failed the test, it was that he had broken it.

  I wonder if we sometimes don’t treat God that way. We give him our problems yet forget to do our part that comes with correcting them. We then get frustrated with God when things don’t turn around quickly. Yet when God still comes thru rather than be amazed, we act disappointed. Instead of seeing his amazing work, we think we are being shortchanged.

God can solve what we think is unsolvable. Yet we might miss it because we think we have done more than we have. Instead of testing God, we should make sure we are giving it all to him. He can make it work even when we don’t.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Gift You Give Yourself

    I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me.   There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15).  I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven.  So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives.  When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Desire

  Is it wrong to want something? I guess it depends on what we want.   The Greek language had a word ‘ orego ’ that meant “to stretch oneself out in order to touch or grasp something, often used metaphorically to denote a strong desire or aspiration for something”. Paul uses this word in 1st Timothy as a good thing (to be an elder 3:1) and a bad thing (longing for money 6:10).   Our desires oftentimes define who we are. They motivate us to action. They are the focus of our minds and actions.  And they can be both good and bad.  Sometimes we want something better and we run over people to get it. Sometimes, we want something better so we will strive to improve ourselves.  Sometimes we see people with nothing they want and we envy them. Other people will see with no desire and we pity them.  We need to desire good things. Be willing to work to get them. Care enough to try.  We need to not desire bad things. Be willing to forgo o...

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...