David replied to Abigail, “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you to meet me today! Thank God for your good sense! Bless you for keeping me from murder and from carrying out vengeance with my own hands.”

— I Samuel 25:32-33

As I stood there puzzling over my home improvement project, my daughter walked by and quickly assessed the situation.

I was stuck.

The last step in my plan would risk unraveling the whole purpose of the project in the first place.

Observing my consternation, she asked what I was thinking. Without hesitation, she said, “Oh, why don’t you … ?”

“Huh,” I said, “Great idea!”

Within minutes, I had it all wrapped up.

Perspective is, at times, extremely difficult to find.

Emotions, pride and limited knowledge trip us up more often than we care to admit.

David was in one of those places.

He was ticked off and disrespected. He was about to unleash some serious paybacks.

Then, good sense showed up. Her name was Abigail. With wisdom, tact, and humility she was used by God to open his eyes to the much bigger picture.

What or who does God have to use to get your attention?

The consequences of our foolishness can be devastating and sometimes irreversible.

It doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve told my kids and myself many times that it is simply not necessary to have to learn everything the hard way.

God, in his grace, has provided his Spirit, his word, loving people, the mistakes of others, etc., to provide us access to good sense.

Today, let’s enter into it.

Remain

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

— John 15:1-8

As I turned around, I was feeling pretty good about myself.

All my shots were in the inner circles of the target.

The looks on my kids’ and friend’s faces, however, were not looks of being impressed. They were looks of concern.

My friend told us before shooting this gun that it was important to remain a certain distance away from the scope because of the kickback. Well, let’s just say that the blood coming from the bridge of my nose revealed a failure on my part to heed his warning.

Jesus was having quite the talk with the disciples as they walked to the Garden of Gethsemane. He gave them plenty of safety instructions, which included warnings as well. They needed to stay as close to him as they could imagine and then get closer.

“Remain in me,” he said.

There was to be no space allowed between their hearts and his. No space between his commands and their obedience.

What was at stake? Nothing less than the fulfillment of their Kingdom destiny.

Jesus invites all of us into a relationship of continuous contact with him.

Sadly, we are all easily distracted from this focused posture.

“No big deal,” we say. “I got this,” we say. “No harm, no foul,” we say.

“Remain!” he says. “Change the world!” he says. “Live large!” he says.

Each day we are granted, we are choosing who or what to remain in. To whom or what are we knitting our hearts?

Is that particular whomever or whatever able to provide the best life possible now and forever?

Wiles is senior minister of Fall Creek Christian Church in Pendleton. He can be reached at 765-778-3166.