It has been a little while since I last posted. Life right now is very busy. Busy at work, busy at home, busy at church, busy planning, busy re-planning, busy writing, busy...busy...busy. Over 40 years have passed me... A little over 15 000 days... 360 000 hours...21 600 000 minutes...1 404 000 000 heart beats ( One billion 404 million heart beats) and counting. My body is busy without me even thinking about it.
Then I read Haggai 1...5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.” 7 This is what the LORD Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways"... And I can't help but reflect on what is being said in this chapter. Twice the Lord says "Give careful thought to your ways." What is the Lord talking about? People being busy with what they want to do. For several years the Jewish people had returned to Jerusalem and they did not rebuild the temple...God's house. Their priorities where out of sync. they had a "me" first mentality. I think that today, in our busy lives, we often have this mentality. Me first.
The prophet goes on to write:
8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the LORD. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the LORD Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Here we have a very clear, concise, cause and effect. God's house was neglected...and God was not happy. People were busy doing "their own thing." The result was this - there were consequences. There was accountability.
