Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list R-019 [Repeat of CLM 757: 31 Dec 1998]

LITTLE BOXES

by Ron Clarke

Every year, most of us buy a diary. … I’ve only got a small diary that I carry with me – one month to a page with 30 or 31 squares on it. The other day I looked back over the past few months and found that on every page just about every square had something written in it. Then I looked to the next page, the next few weeks, and found that many of the little squares already had something written into them.

That’s the trouble with appointment diaries. In one sense they are essential but there is a temptation to write something into every square if someone says to you, “If you’re not busy on such and such a day you might like to….” And so it goes on. You turn the page for the next few weeks and, lo and behold, all the little boxes are full.

So I said to myself, “Now just a moment, why are all these little boxes being filled.” I’ve said to the Lord, “Do with me as you will, my life is yours.” Yet all these little diary boxes are full. I should try to keep at least some of them empty so that I can say, “This is yours Lord.” Instead, I’m boxing Jesus into the first little square on each line of my diary.

As Christians the possibilities of the days to come are exciting and significant. We face the weeks and months ahead with more freedom and more options than ever before. No matter in which direction we go, we make choices. For as Christians we’ve been called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world and that leaves us precious little time for letting the days, weeks and months pass us by without much to show for it. But already, many of my little boxes are full.

I have a strong conviction that the Lord wants to use us Christians in the days ahead. I’m not sure what direction that will take, what demands will be made of us, what sacrifices that will entail. But one thing is obvious – it will require commitment and it will involve time.

May the little boxes in your diary reflect the glory of God and trace the extension of His Kingdom.

– Pastor Ron Clarke

Bible reading: 1 Peter 4:12 to 5:11

(This is one from a series of weekly messages of encouragement originating from the Derwent Valley, near Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. To subscribe direct to that list, e-mail <> with the words ‘subscribe word’)