Happy Saturday, friends!
It’s going to be a great day!
How do I know?
Well, for one thing, I’m going to get to spend a little one-on-one time with my #1 granddaughter who just turned 10.
BUT THAT’S NOT WHY IT’S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY.
Also today, Mrs. Sweetie and I are going to get to hang out with some special friends who were our next door neighbors for the entire 32 years we lived in Azle.
BUT THAT’S NOT WHY IT’S GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY.
Here’s why it’s going to be a great day: because I get to choose how I approach today and how I respond to every circumstance today.
Now I know that not everyone agrees with the idea that we get to choose.
Ok.
I’m not threatened by disagreement and I’m not going to love anyone less who disagrees with me.
My hymn this morning was “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus.”
Growing up in the Baptist tribe in the 1960s and 70s, this song was a one of the most common “invitation” hymns in our church services.
And that would make sense since William J Reynolds, Baptist hymnologist and longtime professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary arranged the setting of the hymn in our hymnals in 1959.
I was today years old when I learned the story behind the hymn.
According to tradition, the tune is an Indian folk tune and the words were based on the final words of Nokseng, a man from the Garo tribe in the Assam region of India who was martyred after converting to Christianity in the middle of the 19th century.
It is said that he recited words from the 12th chapter of the Gospel of John while he and his family were killed.
The formation of the martyr’s words into a hymn has been attributed to the Indian missionary Sadhu Sundar Singh.
Because there are theological differences among different groups concerning choice/decision, it is not universally included in hymnals (or set lists, now that the production of hymnals has declined).
I’m not going to argue for the inclusion of a hymn or even for decision theology. (One might say that I’ve decided not to).
I’m just going to say that I have decided that today is going to be a great day—no matter what happens—because I know who ultimately holds me in His hands.
My prayer, before I leave the house to pick up my granddaughter, is that I’ll live today sensitive to His presence and available for His purposes.
Be amazing today, my friend.
