3.277 Give a Little Whistle

In Matthew 5, Jesus calls us the salt of the earth and the light of the world, reminding us that our lives are meant to preserve, illuminate, and point others to Him. This season on Savory Salt, we'll walk through the Old Testament, one verse and one thought each day. Perhaps these moments will add greater savor and brighter light to our lives as we seek to truly live as Savory Salt.

Hello, my friends. It's a new day with new opportunities. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.

You know, one of my favorite memories as a kid was having my grandpa whistle. My grandpa whistled all the time. He whistled when he was working.

He whistled when he was hanging out. Just seemed like The Bible is a book of the Bible. Before we get there, I want to hold this idea.

For a while, I used to whistle at work as well. It was back when I was teaching, and I used to have some teachers that would kind of look at me weird and be like, "What are you so happy about?" I didn't realize that whistling was kind of a happy indicator, but I just thought I kind of like to whistle as I work, you know. Now the interesting thing with that is those conversations typically led to, well, is it bad to whistle or what's wrong with whistling?

And it led to very interesting conversations about, well, there's nothing good to whistle about with the state of the world being what it is. And many times I hear people talk about how people of faith are just dumb and stupid. I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ gives us a message of joy and happiness, yes, in the future, reminding us that the Lord will absolutely remember his people.

Verse 13 says, Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. My friends, as we've gone further into life, you've probably dealt with some difficult challenges and tragedies in your life. I've talked openly about losing most of my grandparents when I was young.

My parents have both passed away now. Those are challenging times to have loved ones pass away. But it's not the only challenges we face.

There's others as well. We can have job losses or relationship breakups, or we can have situations where things just seem like they're not going right. But the phrase inside of this verse that I like, if you'll notice the way it's worded, it says it this way: "for the Lord hath comforted his people and will have mercy upon his afflicted." Notice that the first half of that phrase, "hath comforted his people," is a present... it's a past tense.

It happened here and now. The Lord comforts his people here and now. And then the second half of the phrase, "will have mercy upon his afflicted," and more goodness will come.

So today, my friends, if you catch me whistling down the street or perhaps just humming to myself a little bit, yeah, I've got reason to whistle. It's not that the world is in chaos and I've just disregarded it, and it's certainly not that I've entered into some religious fanaticism that I believe that heaven's the only way I can be happy. No, I think today I whistle a little bit because the Lord's comforted me in my times of challenge.

I can find peace here and now, despite my afflictions. They are hard times, yes, and they will come and go, yes. But through all of them, good and bad, the Lord can make the good better and the bad better as well.

And I'm grateful to him for it and grateful to my pop for teaching me to just continue to give a little whistle in life. That's all for today, my friends. You and I have come here for such a time as this.

Step forward in faith and let's be savory salt. We will be here tomorrow, and we hope you are too.