Today, we explore the concept of "froth" in our lives—activities that may be enjoyable but ultimately lack lasting value. Drawing from George MacDonald's insight that amusement is fleeting, we examine what in our lives might be merely frothy and how we can replace it with pursuits of eternal significance. I encourage listeners to reflect on their daily activities and consider what is genuinely meaningful to them. We also discuss practical ways to exchange time spent on trivial pursuits for more impactful actions, such as sharing faith or supporting charitable causes. By doing so, we can create a more fulfilling life that prioritizes lasting value over temporary pleasure.

Takeaways:

1. This episode discusses the idea that many activities in our lives are frothy and fleeting, lacking lasting value.
2. We are encouraged to evaluate what in our lives is froth and to seek meaningful exchanges.
3. The challenge is to identify frothy activities and replace them with actions that have eternal significance.
4. Jesus warned us against gaining the whole world but losing our soul, emphasizing lasting value over temporary gains.
5. Engaging with others about Jesus can transform our use of free time into something impactful and life-changing.
6. Consider using discretionary income for gifts that truly make a difference, like supporting water projects for those in need.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. searchforjesus.net
2. worldvision.net
3. livingwaterwells.org
4. bible805.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

1. Billy Graham Association
2. searchforjesus.net
3. World Vision
4. WorldVision.net
5. livingwaterwells.org

Hi, welcome to the Hobo Soul Podcast of road advice from the Bible and from me, Yvon Prehn, someone who's a little further down the road of life. I'll talk to you every weekday for about five to 10 minutes, with periodic longer talks on serious Saturdays. Let's get started with our topic today,

Lenten devotion 14 Froth is fun but fading

Let's talk today about what might be fun and not necessarily evil, but in the final analysis, frothy and fading in our lives. And then I'll have some suggestions on how to exchange it for something meaningful today and of eternal value.

Today's quote that prompts all this comes from George MacDonald, who said,

"You can't live on amusement. It is froth on water an inch deep, and then the mud."

And our challenge for today is

"Take some time to evaluate what in your life is froth and what is the mud that underlies it after the froth floats away? What is an exchange you can make for an activity that has eternal value?"

Now here's my commentary on that.

I just learned how to make oat milk foam for my coffee at home, and I use a little tool that's called a milk frother wand, and I am having so much fun with it.

Now, I know my oat milk isn't precisely the same as the froth or the water that George McDonald's was talking about, but it's similar, a characteristic though, of froth, even though it might look really good and be fun and tasty, but the bubbly foam that's on the top of my coffee or the pretty to look at foam floating on the water. Something that makes both of them similar is they just don't last.

The challenge to us at Lant and always is that we can spend our lives chasing after one foamy, frothy experience after another, after activities that might be satisfying in the moment, but in the long term, not so much.

What was he talking about?

I think in part he explains it in another passage where he said Then he said to them, "watch out. Be on guard against all kinds of greed for your life does not consist in an abundance of possessions."

We sometimes think it does.

Affluence, an abundance of possessions can be how we go after gaining the whole world. Now, I don't think Jesus, though, was just referring to stuff, but that is part of it.

Those of us that live in North America, where even at our most frugal, we have more positions than much of the world can only imagine. We need to evaluate how stuffed our lives have become and prayerfully take before the Lord.

If we have a constant need for more and more, some thought and time with the Lord in prayer might not only help us curb impulse buying and spending too much time on Amazon and things like that, but might also motivate us to get rid of some of the froth of our possessions.

Beyond this obviousness of tangible stuff, let's look more deeply at how to distinguish between what is foam and fluff and what is of lasting value in other parts of our lives. John 6:27 says to us, do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

Food is what sustains life. And one way to look at this is to ask ourselves, what sustains us? What are we doing? What actions are we taking? What hobbies do we engage in?

How do we use our free time that might be foamy and of little value? And what can we exchange for something that might be of more eternal value?

Now, for starters, most of us have some free time when we aren't working at jobs or life sustaining activities. So what do we do in that free time?

I'm thinking here, both younger people who are maybe currently spending it with online gaming, and then on the other end of seniors, perhaps retired grandparents who are hooked on Facebook and Instagram. And with either group though, you just spend so much time online, not really doing anything of consequence.

Now what if, what if you exchanged even part of that time for time to interact with people about Jesus? Now this can be really exciting and you're probably thinking, what in the world am I talking about? But let me explain.

Remember when Jesus gave his disciples a great commission, he commanded them to go into all the world to preach the gospel.

And you may have brushed that off, sort of thinking, well, you know, that's very nice, but I'm having a hard enough time talking to my neighbor about Jesus. I mean, you know, how in the world could I share the good news about Jesus in the uttermost parts of the world? But. But you can.

This is the exciting part.

The Billy Graham association has an online program, searchforjesus.net that will, after they train you, connect you with people who 247 are coming to their website from all over the world asking questions about Jesus to work with them, you have lots of options you can.

If you're brave enough and knowledgeable enough, you can actually engage in rapid online chat in real time with seekers again from all over the world who want to know more about Jesus.

You can also, in a much more relaxed way, you can be very thoughtful, like one lady that does this maybe once a week where you can have email interactions with people. Again, many of them are from closed countries wanting to learn about Jesus. Volunteers in this program can also serve as online coaches.

They can connect people with local churches. There's just a lot of things that they can do.

Think about the time you've wasted this last week scrolling through your social media because you were just lonely or bored. You don't have to be that way. You don't have to waste that time. You can be using it to interact with people who want to know about Jesus Again.

The ministry to help you do this is searchforjesus.net onto another exchange from something frothy to something with eternal value for those with discretionary income. We often use our money for gifts for the people we love who quite honestly in most instances don't need or even sometimes want what we give them.

But we don't have to do that. We have options. One year for Christmas I decided to make a change with some of the younger children who meant a lot to me.

I don't have any biological children of my own. I got the Christmas gift catalog from World Vision and a number of other organizations have it.

But this is from WorldVision.net and I cut out pictures of the various gifts you could give to kids around the world. Things like a soccer ball or a sewing machine, animals like chickens and goats. Things that would make a huge difference in the life of a family.

I told the kids instead of me buying them gifts this year, we were going to take the money and they could buy real life changing gifts for children around the world and they got to decide what they wanted to do.

So I divided the kids into teams, gave them some play money that would be replaced with real money that I would make the orders with the pictures and the cost of the gifts. They had a great time debating on what to give and that Christmas was just extraordinarily meaningful to everyone involved.

For bigger gifts and celebrations where we might spend larger amounts of money, perhaps a milestone birthday for someone of any age or even something like a wedding present, consider building a well or other water project in another country in the name of that person or couple. This could be an extraordinary legacy gift and one of the literally most life changing things you can do.

Approximately 2 million deaths happen each year from water related diseases. 800,000 of them are diarrhea related and the majority of the deaths are in children under 5 years old.

There are many ministries that work on water related projects and the death rate has dropped significantly over the last decade. But much more needs to be done.

Though a well could run 10,000 or more in some places, livingwaterwells.org has water projects that run as low as $300 and the link for that is in the show notes. That's what many people spend on a big deal gift. Think about spending it on something that will literally change many lives.

There are many other things you can do. Take your time, do some research and as you do, have a creamy frothy cup of coffee.

But keep the froth of your life combined to a coffee cup and your life will be much more satisfying now and forever.

In closing for this Lenten Devotional, which is a special Hobo Soul series that I'm doing for Lent, I'd encourage you to pause, take time to share with Jesus your response, thoughts and prayers to what you just heard. You can do this quietly in your heart or you can write it out.

I have a free journal with the quotes, challenges and space for you to write in that you can download at www.bible805.com.

Let me close in prayer for you that as Jesus went into the wilderness to solidify his calling, that you, during this time retreat to a place spiritually where God can significantly deepen your relationship with him, where he can speak to you regardless of the temptations and distractions in your life, and that you'll come out of it with a clear sense of his calling for you and a commitment to follow it. Nothing more, nothing less, nothing else. Amen.