A New Tune - Pt 1

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” (Haggai 1:1-5 ESV).

If you read some of the previous devotionals (“Mountain Roads”) you know Mary and I have recently returned from an extended trip where we flew to Washington DC and drove home. Of course, we took the route leading through the Smokies! How could we resist that! You may also know that part of the reason for this trip was to acquire a “new” car. Our youngest son, Aaron, who also lives and works in DC, has had a 2006 Mazda Tribute since it was purchased new. He rarely drives and when our leased vehicle came due to turn in, he offered to give us his car. The savings to us is enormous and it is nearly new sixteen years later. It only has 90K miles on it and has been mechanically and cosmetically kept pristine. You can tell from the picture that the only things we had to do were to add an Aggie sticker and a Smoky Mountains emblem. Of course, we had to do a few practical things as well. It did need new tires, since the others were six years old and had begun to dry rot from a lack of driving; and, of course we needed to have it inspected and tagged in Texas. Well, “Delilah” (the car’s name, and don’t ask “why?”) passed inspection with flying colors. She is now truly a Texan! She is also a “new tune” for us. There are some things about this car that are different from our 2016 vehicle just off lease. Mary’s one big adjustment is the absence of a back-up camera. We do have a long up-hill driveway to get to the street, so it is a bit more inconvenient, though that merely requires backing the old-fashioned way. All of this reminded me of a relatively unknown and unread little book in the Old Testament. It is Haggai. Tucked near the end of the Old Testament, third from last on that biblical road-less-traveled called the minor prophets, it’s one of Scripture’s shortest books, and one of its best for singing this “new tune” in life. Haggai helps us understand the ingredients for a fresh start. It is not with willpower or determination, but faith-filled resolve. We’ll look at some ways to do this in the next few days. Today, simply pray for the wisdom and strength to sing your new tune!