As I sit down to write this post it's 8:20 p.m.  To be honest, I envy those who are able to put together a schedule that's the same every day.  This post ought to have been before you by no later than 8:20 a.m., but it wasn't.  I had a full day, a good day, but a full one. 

I left the house at 4:45 a.m. for a time with my accountability partner  Then it was off to the YMCA for 45 minutes with God, while my body swam a mile.  Then it was home for about 20 minutes before heading off to four consecutive meetings­--the first with the South Butler Community Alliance, then with a group of prayer walkers as we celebrated the National Day of Prayer, then staff meeting, and finally a meeting of the Christian Leadership Network of Sarver-Saxonburg.  After that, I stopped in to say, "Hi" to Nancy (my wife, for those who don't know), and switch cars, so Emmy (our younger daughter) could have it to go to the Knoch girls' softball game to sing the National Anthem.  Drove home, got a snack, perused the new Sports Illustrated (because I was feeling sort of fried), then decided to go with Emmy to the ball game to hear her sing the National Anthem and to enjoy what turned out to be a couple of hours with her.  Then I just finished two and a half hours of dinner followed by planting perennials with Nancy.  Somewhere along the way, I could have fit in writing today's blog post, or I could have done it last night since I knew today was going to be full.  Instead, I'm writing NOW.  As I read through what I just wrote, I would envy me if I weren't I!  By definition, I can't envy myself, because envy is a feeling of discontented longing aroused by the possessions, qualities or luck of another.  But I had the opportunity to invest the day with most of my favorite people.  As I participated in the day, with a total of about 100 different people at various levels of interaction, I didn't have a discontented longing about any of their possessions, qualities or luck.  (Well, maybe I did wish I had the one guy's coat when I was shivering while watching the softball game.)  What I'm saying is:  When we invest our days in time with God and enjoying and serving with His people, and showing His love to others, we don't have the time or energy to envy. 

Jesus told a parable about a man who had a demon.  The demon was removed, but the man didn't replace the "void" with anything.  The demon went and found seven other demons more evil than itself and re-entered the man.  Jesus tells us the last state of the man was worse than the first.  The man's error?  He left a void in his life that was supposed to be filled with Jesus--with the Holy Spirit.  I greatly enjoyed a challenging day (for me any day with five meetings is a challenge!), because I went through it with Jesus.  Did I live it perfectly?  No.  There' s no "t" at the end of my name.   But, I did live it fully, and there's still another hour or two to enjoy with Nancy as soon as this task is accomplished.  

If we want to overcome pride, envy, sloth, greed, lust, wrath and gluttony in our lives---the seven "deadly" sins, and all the rest, the simple solution is to go through the day with Jesus.  That's simple.  Not easy, but simple.   For the most part, that was the kind of day I lived today.  How cool is that!