Chapter-a-Day Isaiah 33

The answer's simple:
   Live right,
   speak the truth,
   despise exploitation,
   refuse bribes,
   reject violence,
   avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living! A safe and stable way to live. A nourishing, satisfying way to live. Isaiah 33:15-16 (MSG)

Today at work I'm preparing for a couple of upcoming training sessions. In my job one of my many tasks is to take very broad and deep data from research and assessments and translate them into a simple message. I've got to distill a veritable encyclopedia of charts and graphs into a short bullet list that people can grasp and which they can easily translate into behavioral changes in their conversations with customers.

Perhaps that's why these two verses stood out into today's chapter. Life begins to feel so complicated at times. After a couple of weeks in which I've mostly been away from home, I'm definitely feeling the pressure this morning in my office. I'm scattered. There's so much to do and I don't know where to begin. It's always good to sit back and try to distill the broad range of issues, relationships, questions, needs, desires, dreams, and to-do lists into a simple handful of priorities that I can hold onto. That gives me the simple direction I need to step out into the day with purpose.

Keep it simple.

Creative Commons photo courtesy of Flickr and perfectfutures

Comments

[Matthew Burch]

So true, life is too complex, entangled with more than we can sometimes handle. A good word for the day. Thanks Tom

[kr]

15-16The answer's simple:
Live right,
speak the truth,
despise exploitation,
refuse bribes,
reject violence,
avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living!
A safe and stable way to live.
A nourishing, satisfying way to live.

I love how at times the Message is very difficult to understand and requires deep thinking. I also apreciate when it is laid out quite easy to follow (the 10 commandments come to mind). There's not alot of question when the Message is direct. Today's verse gives some very easy-to-follow ways to raise our standard of living. I'm up to trying...are you?