Tampa Traveling Update

Howdy, folks. It’s been a very productive day in Tampa today. The weather is nice, and I got a lot done. We got out to the new Dali Museum first thing this morning, and I interviewed the contractors while the Googled-Hired Photographer took spectacular photographs. After that, we bustled off to McDill Air Force Base and enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II in the lobby while I had by background checked (I have new respect for the Air Force now). Then, we ate lunch and the salesman dropped me off at the hotel where I have caught up my email and started on the Dali story. It has to be approved by both the project manager’s office and the mechanical contractor’s office before it can be printed, so I need to get it done very quickly.

Sounds like the weather at home is dreadful, so we’ll see if I actually get into Wichita tomorrow. I may spend the night in Houston.

Anyway, things down here are great. I’m looking forward to getting home, though.

Composed from the Holiday Inn in Tampa

Good morning again from Tampa, FL! Again, this little devotional this morning will be brief, but I think my salesman friend’s complaint at the main desk improved my internet service just a tad. Nevertheless, we have a long day planned and it starts in mere moments.

The verse today is a hard one to remember at times.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5

⁴ “Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.^{[a] 5} And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.

God is God alone. Only Him. No one like Him in the universe. There never has been and there never will be. I think we forget that sometimes.

In our quest to understand Him or make Him fit in a box or make Him relevant to the world, I think sometimes Christians forget that God is so enormous that we can’t comprehend Him. I know I take Him for granted. I know I don’t understand just how mighty He is. He loves us so much, sometimes I forget how righteous He is — or maybe I forget on purpose because I know I can never measure up to His standards.  I’m so thankful for Jesus because thanks to His sacrifice we don’t have to.

But we are to love God with everything we are. All our heart, all our souls, all our strength. Everything we have.

That’s hard.

It’s hard to love someone you’ve never seen.

This is a terrible analogy, but it makes me think of a penpal. Have you ever had a penpal? I did. Many moons ago. His name was Tafirenyika Chifamuna, and he lived in Zimbabwe. It’s a long story how we were introduced, but we wrote letters to each other for about four or five years before we finally lost track of each other. I was very sad because I loved writing to him. Honestly, he was one of my very close friends and I had no idea what he looked like.

Sometimes I think of God as my penpal, which is probably blasphemous. But I’ve never seen Him and He wrote me letters (the Bible). And I love Him in spite of never seeing Him or having a “real” conversation with Him. And I am totally looking forward to the day when I can meet Him face to face.

Loving God with everything I am is hard because so many things vie for my attention, but I need to remember what is really important, what will still be standing at the end of the day. Because when everything else falls apart, God is still there. He is all that matters, and no one who has ever devoted their life to Him has regretted it. Not truly.