Over the
years, I've been blessed to have received some really good advice. My
junior high basketball coaches advised me to lift up my feet so I wouldn’t trip
over the painted lines on the court (I tried, but I was always finding myself
on the hard-court floor). My high school
golf coach told me more than once that if I hit a bad shot to forget about it
and make the next one better (I have forgotten so many bad shots over the years and can't recall any of the good ones). My dad advised me not to purchase a mobile
home (I did anyway).
My
father-in-law always advised me on taking care of the finances in the home and
don’t have a good time on borrowed money (I didn't really follow his advice to
the letter). A well respected person in my home church encouraged me to
always make copies (I followed his advice and now I don't know what to do with
all of the hard copies I have - he never told me about any statute of
limitations on how long I should keep them). When I was going into the
ministry, my brother advised me to make sure I was in a Bible believing church
(I have remembered that advice throughout the years and hopefully have followed
it).
Even my
daughter gave me some advice when we were in Israel several years ago. Generally we traveled to some very warm places
(it was during March). But, on this one day, we were up in the highlands of
Israel, near the Syrian border. The
temperature had gone from near 80 to 55 degrees – I mentioned to her that I was
cold. Her advice? “Suck it up, buttercup, you’re from Minnesota”
she said, quite matter-of-factly. Ego
somewhat bruised, I pulled my light weight (there it is) jacket up over my neck
and shrugged. But she was right. I was from Minnesota and was shaming my
heritage. Good call on her part.
When we
think back on it, someone has always been giving us advice. Some of it we follow – some of it we don’t. Some of it is excellent advice. Some of it we’d rather not hear. Like the disciples in that moment when Jesus
told them that the Son of Man would need to be killed and after three days
would rise again. The advice part of
what Jesus was saying to them was that they would listen carefully to what he
was saying – take it to heart – hear His words of wisdom. In that moment, they didn’t really get it. It wouldn’t be until later after the resurrection that the evening
lantern would turn on over their heads and they would finally understand what
Jesus was telling them.
The
Bible has so many words of advice to offer us.
Will we choose to listen to them or allow them to pass over us, as we shrug
our shoulders and move on? My
advice? Listen to what the Bible has to say. Listen to what Jesus is telling
you. Follow His advice.
As far as how hard that advice might
be to implement or even understand, I echo my daughter’s words – “Suck
it up, buttercup – you’re one of God’s children… you’ll get it – just follow Him!”
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