DAY 13 -

1 Samuel 24:6 "[David] said to his men, 'The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.'"

Loetta Wideman, missionary to Ethiopia and Kenya, challenges us to affirm three people today.  At first thought this is really easy.  Just tell your parents, a neighbor, a friend, ago-worker, just tell three people.  The problem comes when she delicately but strategically adds to the equation, "find three people that make you uncomfortable, threaten you, or maybe you are a little envious of..."  and affirm them.

Wow!  How many times have I really done this in the last week, no years?  It's just not in my DNA or at least I've used that as an excuse at times not to do hard things.  This Live Dead devotional has opened more than just my eyes.  As I speak to my friends and co-workers I'm realizing that my eyes, my ears, my sense of smell, my heart, and my actions are all becoming more engaged in the CAUSE.

Loetta brings another perspective that I appreciated.  "When we are genuinely affirming others by word or by something we do, we chisel away a little of our selves."  This carries more truth than we like to admit.  Like most people, I don't wake up everyday looking for affirmation, which might be why I don't offer it as often as I should.  The point here is that when we choose to empty ourselves, our wants, our needs and our obsessive desires to be better than others, we can truly start LIVING DEAD.

"When we've got to have our way no mater the cost, we can be assured that we're very much alive in ourselves." Wideman