Spam

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13

There was an interesting news article about six weeks ago. Authorities (including the U.S.) announced they had brought down one of the largest ‘spamming’ outfits in the world. If I remember right, the spammers were located in Eastern Europe, and it was an international investigation that dropped out most of their servers and made several arrests.

The impact was quick and obvious. All three of my active email accounts were noticeably empty of spam. For a few days, there was no one trying to sell me watches or prescription drugs or (you fill in the blank). For a few days. However, it wasn’t four days later that my in-boxes were flooded with incredible offers of great deals on stuff I have no use for. *Sigh.*

Kind of reminds me of efforts I’ve made in the past for self-improvement. It’s easy to get on a kick (lose weight, work out more, read my Bible, be over-all kinder – all things I need to work on) for a few days/weeks and then in grand fashion fall off the wagon and fall back into poor habits.

And when we do things on our own power, it is like the most temporary take down of the spammers that authorities were bragging about. It’s great. For a few days.

God’s Word knows the human condition. The apostle Paul knew he could do ‘everything.’ If he was doing it with the power and the will of Jesus Christ. Paul could have just as easily wrote, “I will fail at everything (ultimately) through my flesh which is weak.

How are you going to do things today? By your own power? We people are fairly ingenious. Man can we work up the spam in a hurry. But when we really need to improve, we have to rely on something that is outside of us. And that is Christ and his Sprit. With that, we can indeed do all things. Maybe even ignore the spam.

With that said, I pray we all have a great Tuesday, which feels like a Monday! And may we all do “everything through him who gives me strength.”