Is Your Kitchen Table More Level Than Your Life?

The desk in my office is level. The walls of my office are level. The doorplates are level; so are the windows, floors, ceilings, pews and piano lid. Knowing this fact has given me many nights of peaceful sleep and a number of productive days. How do I know all this? I have a new level that I brought to work and is sitting on my desk so that I see it all day as I sit and work. One day, I decided to see how well our church and church offices were built, so I went on a ‘leveling adventure.”

I may have misspoken a bit when I said it was a new level, but it is a new level to me. In actuality, it is very old and apparently a hard to find item these days. It is made of wood and shaped like a small submarine or torpedo and has the little holes and windows in various places to show the leveling bubble. When my mom and I were cleaning out the garage after my dad’s death, we found it in a box with a lot of other size levels and various tool-like things which we had no clue as to their use. I picked up this small level and noticed on a piece of metal attached that my dad had scratched his initials at some point so that it would not get lost as he carried it with him on various building projects. So, this item is special to me not only because things like levels fascinate me and the size was unique, but also it had my dad’s initials on it. He had used it, loaned it out and thought enough about it to signify it as his property.

Everyday when I am working I glance occasionally at this level and it occurs to me the importance of things being level. If my desk were a little off-kilter, then pens and pencils would roll off; my stress ball would be continually cruising off the side and it would be a bit more difficult to take that afternoon nap when my head could lay evenly on the surface.

This led me to think about lives, my life in particular. Should lives have a degree of levelness about them? I have plenty of friends who seem to operate just a bit off-center, as do I on most occasions, however, I think we should all have an even and level keel to guide us through the day. Look in Micah 6:8 and find out how God expects us to live a level life. “And what does the Lord ask of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Now look at Isaiah 1:16b – 17a. “Stop doing evil things and learn to do good.” There is not a lot of wiggle room in there. Both words “stop” and “learn” are pretty clear orders for an action.

These are just a few simple things to help us live a life of level headedness and keep ourselves on track when things are crashing all about us. Basically, treat others with justice, be kind, walk with humbleness (don’t be an arrogant snob), stop doing bad things and learn to do good things.

Is it easy? Heck, no. Have I arrived at this point? Heck, no once again. Yet, I still try to do my best. That’s all we are expected to do.

And for today my friends, this has been the gospel according to Jimmy.