Monday Memo

by Steve May

Carl Sandburg said, “There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.”

He may not have known it, but he was describing the life of every believer in Jesus Christ. It’s our dual nature, as Paul described in Romans 7:22-23. “I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work in me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.”

Everyday you have to choose: Will you live according to the new nature or the old? Will you soar with the eagles or wallow in the mud? Your decision determines everything — how you greet your day, what you think about, how you talk to (or talk about) your co-workers, how you spend your spare change, and how you spend your spare time.

Every day, and every moment of every day, you have the power to choose your environment: the clear blue sky or the local hippo hangout. You’ve got a key to both places, and access is unrestricted — it just depends on where you prefer to be.

Remember today that God is calling you upward.

In the Ken Burns PBS series on jazz music, Duke Ellington was asked how it felt to be unable, due to segregation, to stay in the guest rooms of the hotels he and his band performed in. He said, “I took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.”

Lately I keep coming back to Romans 5:3 — “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance, proven character…”

Tribulations are unavoidable, inevitable and inescapable, but you can change how they affect your life with a right response. You can use your energy to pout, or you can use it to make great music. It’s up to you.

Every day we face some kind of setback, some kind of disappointment — and everyday we have the opportunity to invest our energy in something more productive than anger, frustration, resentment or self-pity. Our challenge each day is to put those reactions aside, and focus on every opportunity to make music.