Today's Devotional
Have you ever had to reset anything to factory settings? Perhaps your computer or cell phone had been on the fritz, and all your efforts to fix it fell flat leaving you with the last resort of resetting back to the factory settings. So, you did and then, by some technological miracle, all the bugs were gone, and the device started working. What if we were to do a factory reset on living a life of anxiety, dread and hurry?
New seasons bring about a unique opportunity. For instance, the seasons in the church like Advent and Lent offer the gift of seeing and living in new ways. By transforming ourselves to be more like Christ, we can work on our default setting. Of course, there are many new seasons recognized throughout the year that offer the chance to reset – New Year’s, the start of spring, birthdays, a new school year, opening day of your favorite sport – but there doesn’t have to be a special occasion for you to reset your life and embrace a posture of joy, prayer, thanksgiving and peace.
One of the fan favorites from the 2021 season of “America's Got Talent” was Jane Marczewski, also known as Nightbirde. She won the judges over with a song about her cancer journey. Sadly, Jane passed away before she could finish the competition. Before her passing, she tweeted, "You can't wait until life isn't hard anymore before you decide to be happy." Nightbirde left a gift for us all by taking notes from 1 Thessalonians. Even though she was in a difficult season of life, her default setting was joy, prayer and thankfulness.
How would your life or the lives of your people change if you did a factory reset and lived the disciplined life of joy, prayer and thanks?
— Rev. David Johnson, First UMC Round Rock, CTC
david@fumc-rr.org
