What Do You Do to 'Unwind'

[Ramez5]

Great blessings belong to those who don’t listen to evil advice, who don’t live like sinners, and who don’t sit down to relax with those who make fun of God. Instead, they love the Lord’s teachings and think about them day and night. So they grow strong, like a tree planted by a stream— a tree that produces fruit when it should and has leaves that never fall. Everything they do is successful. Psalm 1:1-3 One of the most amazing stories I ever read, was the testimony of David Wilkerson, who started Teen Challenge. I was a teenager when I first read the story of a small town pastor who went to talk to a teen gang member who had been part of a brutal murder of a helpless old person on the streets of New York. The young man, because of David’s efforts to witness to him and reach him, eventually became a Christian and a pastor. David’s efforts to speak to Nicky Cruz were the first steps in what eventually became an amazingly fruitful street ministry and a life long pulpit ministry in New York. Countless runaway teens, drug addicts and gang members were ministered to by young Christian college students that David trained. The story is amazing, because this man was just an ordinary pastor of a little church, living, by his description, a very normal quiet life with his wife and daughters. He had no desire or interest to do anything ‘big for God’. He was just living his life and doing 'his job.' What prompted this amazing transformation from an easy going small town pastor in Pennsylvania to powerful, street minister in New York… was the still small voice of the Holy Spirit ...who interrupted David's usual 2-hour mindless persual of the tv channels each night after a long day of pastoring. He was sitting in his study as he put it, "gazing numbly at the tv screen .. vaugely aware of a row of dancing girls… part of some scene in a boring re-run", when the Lord prompted this quiet thought in his head. "What would happen", he wondered, "if I traded 2 hours of channel surfing through boring tv re-runs every evening for 2 hours of prayer and the Word?" That question and his decision to ‘try it’ for a while was the first step in an amazing journey to the beginning of a culture changing ministry. He described the long evenings.. and how awkward it felt at first.. How does a person pray for 2 hours? So he began to pray and read.. bascially on his knees. Nothing noticeable changed.. at first.. but one night he saw a newspaper sitting on his desk with the headline describing the trial going on at that very moment.. and he felt the Lord was prompting him to go talk to the head boy about to be tried in New York the next day. The whole process of trying to find the teen, talk to him (no one would let him--not the police or anyone else), but he ended up meeting the boys’ friends on the streets where Nicky hung out. And that’s where the ministry began. He had no idea what that decision to trade the last dregs of his evening for time on his knees and in the Word would do or what a massive impact it would have on multitudes of people for the next 50 years. To me, this psalm.. is challenging us to do what David did.. In fact, it’s the very thing that the Lord has been putting on my heart. Sometimes I try to justify the evening’s entertainment.. movies, games..electronic chatter. Some of it fairly innocent..much of it not. I’m not at all talking about ‘legalism’.. just choosing something that could change our lives.. and the lives of others… rather than something that lulls our spirits.. and produces pretty much zero benefit. The Lord reminded me today that this last five months of the most spiritual growth I’ve ever experienced in my Christian walk is the fruit of a similar decision on my part. I traded my some of my precious ‘free time’ for time with Him and things have never been the same. I am so grateful for this passage! What a beautiful picture of what our spiritual, emotional, and even physical life can be.. when we choose to meditate on His word.. and let the Lord plant us by the ‘rivers of waters’. Just a thought.. Love, Donna Dear Lord, May we be willing to let go of some of that evening entertainment.. for a little more time with you... filling our minds with your Word..prayerfully listening to your still small voice, meditating on your principles...learning to delight in You. Help us take an honest look at how and why we 'relax' with the world.. instead of with You. Help us take a 2nd look at our 'entertainment choices'.. and what the real impact is on ourselves and those around us. Give us the grace to 'accept the challenge'.. and unplug. Amen