Happy Birthday, Honest Abe!
Monday, February 12, 2024
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this too shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!” – Abraham Lincoln
On this, the 215th anniversary of his birth, it is only fitting that we use a quote from the “Ol’ Rail Splitter” as a launching pad for today’s devotional message.
As Lincoln said, the phrase “This too shall pass” has many applications. It can deflate the most arrogant of egos… and it can also comfort someone who is in the depths of despair. The bottom line is that this life is transitory at best.
Having relocated to the Sunshine State in 2011, I am all too familiar with the inside joke that Floridians often tell each other. “If you don’t like the weather, just wait 10 minutes.” In other words, it can be raining cats and dogs one minute and the sun can be shining brightly the next.
Life is a series of ups and downs, hills and valleys. The key is the ability to ride out the low points with faith and hope and without complaint… and then to enjoy and make the most of the high points. However, most of our lives are lived “in between.”
Regardless of what you are experiencing today – a mercurial high or a devasting low – remember Honest Abe’s words as well as those of Isaiah, Peter (who quoted Isaiah), and James.
“A voice says, ‘Cry out!’ And I asked, ‘What should I cry out?’ ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the LORD blows on them; indeed, the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.’” Isaiah 40:6-8 (BSB)
“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make a profit.’ You do not even know what will happen tomorrow! What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that.’” James 4:13-15 (BSB)
- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President
