March 19


Work Things Out


God doesn’t want his children holding grudges … work things out, do your best ....

Philippians 4:1,3 (THE MESSAGE)


In the movie The Straight Story, two elderly brothers have not talked to one another in over ten years. They have been angry and upset and silent. Then one hears the other has had a stroke, and he knows he has to make up with his brother before it’s too late. There’s one major problem. He doesn’t have a car, or a driver’s license, or much money, and his ailing brother lives 260 miles away. So the eighty-year old man climbs on his small John Deere tractor and drives from his farm in Iowa to his brother’s little Wisconsin shack. He drives on the side of the road at five-miles-per-hour. The suspense-filled movie is actually a true story and we wonder: Will the man make it? Will he get there in time? Perhaps the most important point is that the man made the effort. As late as it was, he tried to make things right.

Have you ever felt it was too late to make amends? Perhaps it's something to reconsider. Sometimes God taps us on the shoulder and says, “It’s time. Make peace. Do your best. That’s all I’m asking.”

This is one of those times for me. I need to set things straight, to dump my silly pride and ask forgiveness. I need to trust the Lord to heal and restore, and in the process, bring His greater joy.


Lord, do just that. Please, give me the words, the heart to make things right. Bring Your healing to broken relationships. Give us Your peace and Your greater joy. Amen.