There are many well-meaning devotionals and books out there, but there are those sacred few written by men and women of God who write not just to make a point, but to also reassure those reading that they are flawed just like we are. By the words they write that flow out of God's Spirit we find fragments of them floating still, broken apart in full surrender to God, and we find in the pages of their books that they are as real and earthly as anybody. One book that currently diverts me from the daily rat race is Vance Havner's simple collection of spiritual reflections, a little book called Peace in the Valley, i think maybe published in the 60s or 70s, an old pocket hardbound :) . Lately it seems like I've been drawn to the oldies, tozer, lewis, j.b. phillips and now Vance Havner, there are so many more. Here's a short one from it regarding us worry warts. It's a word for me.
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31. Crossing the Bridge in Advance Once again I have taken the old Carolina Special"--(a train I think or bus...)-- "for a fall trip through the mountains. I should fly, more "progressive" folks think, but I'm not in that big a hurry. Besides, I would have missed the autumn woods, the trees bowing out in a final burst of glory. Soon they will be naked and barren but I like the way they end the summer in a blaze of beauty.
We mortals ought to learn how to take the autumn of life. Because the harvest is past and the summer ended there is no reason why we should turn drab and dull. Even if winter comes and the snows fall, the next thing on the calendar is spring! With the Christian, springtime is an everlasting season. With such a prospect, we have a right to 'bow out' gloriously.
Some fail to do that because they live in the wrong kind of anticipation. They are not looking for the resurrection, they are looking for troubles that never happen. I'd hate to add up all the trains I thought I was going to miss, especially since I can't remember having missed one yet! I wouldn't like to count all the diseases I have been afraid I had at one time or another. So far not of them has developed. I might as well have enjoyed myself all that time. We are all related in experience to the women who started to our Lord's grave after the resurrection. They worried about who would roll away the stone from the sepulcher. They arrived to find that an angel had taken care of that detail. It is the classic example of crossing the bridge before getting to it.
John Bunyan (author, Pilgrim's Progress) may have been re-living some of his own experiences when he gave us Mr. Fearing, who was always crossing bridges in advance. He was worried in particular about his chances of getting to Heaven. He was afraid he might never reach the city he had come so far to behold. Now, he should not have made his way through this world in such a state of apprehension. I am not defending him. He had put his trust in God and he shouldhave taken God's word for it and gaily made his way clear through to the heavenly portals. He missed enjoying the scenery along the way by wondering whether he would be accepted at the end of the journey. But Mr. Fearing had the root of the matter in him and when he reached the river the water was at an all-time low and he crossed over "not much above wet-shod." This is no encouragement to fear and doubt, but it is a blessed thing that our Father knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. Some poor souls seem keyed in the minor and will live out their days timid, nervous, and afraid. It is not right, it grieves the Spirit and it spoils the journey, for we miss so much by sighing when we should be singing.
The Scriptural injunction is, "Sanctify yourselves against to morrow" (Numbers 11:18). We are not to fret ourselves about tomorrow. Let us commit ourselves and our way to God by faith in His Son. Let us trust also in Him and He will bring it to pass. No use crossing the river twice; no use mentally moving stones that angels have been appointed to handle. "He careth for you." Then let Him do it!"
Amen, man...
