Dried Up & Useless

For I have become like a wineskin in the smokeyet I have not forgotten your statutes. (Psalm 119:83 NRSV)

Wineskin - a bag for holding and dispensing wine, made from the skin of a goat or another animal. (Nelson's Bible Dictionary)

I imagine this bag or container for wine hanging in a row with other wineskins, much like tobacco leaves on a farm being dried out. Or like meat being cured and smoked to make jerky.

Smoked meat can be delicious.

Smoked wineskins are useless.

They can't carry anything. They are cracked and falling apart, like a garbage bag that's been punctured; stuff starts falling out.

The Psalmist says that's what he is like: a smoked (or ashy) wineskin...good for nothin'.

Does that ever describe your life?

Maybe it describes it right now. You're worn down by circumstances and worn out by life. You think you're of no use to anybody right now.

Take a cue from the Psalmist.

...yet I have not forgotten your statutes. A few verses later he utters a simple prayer:

...help me! (v86)

If this is where you're living today, dried up, worn out, trampled down, would you do something for me?

Ask God, right now, where you're at, to give you time a little later today, when you can spend it alone with Him.

Maybe it will be with the Bible open on your lap in your favorite chair.

Maybe it will be taking a walk in the woods with no sound but waiting for His voice.

Maybe it will be with your i-pod and some music to draw you close to Him.

Maybe it will be a time when you simply sit still and wait till He speaks.

Maybe it will be as you get back to church this Sunday after having been away for awhile.

We all go through periods of life when we feel like a wet rag...or a smoked wineskin.

But it is in that very place and at that very time that God wants to meet us, refresh us, revive us, bring us back to life again, give us purpose and passion again.

I believe he is ready to do it...even for some of us dried up wineskins and punctured garbage bags.

Grace & peace