Send in the Clowns

By the end of the day, I am ready for a little peace and quiet as our house is like Grand Central Station with folk coming and going, loud noise, laughter, blaring television sets, telephones ringing, and two three-year-old boys watching cartoons and playing! 

                  So, by evening time all I want to do is be silent and enjoy getting into bed. 

I always whisper my prayers as I lay my head on my pillow and ask God to forgive me for everything that has distracted me all day long that kept me from having the running conversation with Him that I love to have. It reminds me of an old song, written for the Broadway musical A Little Night Music, “Send in The Clowns.”  

The lyrics of that song make me think of how life is at times…give me your attention for a second as I explain…

During a circus performance, if something goes wrong, they ‘send in the clowns’ to cause a distraction until whatever is going wrong can be righted, or at a Rodeo, clowns run into the ring if a rider is thrown from the bull to distract him from the fallen rider. 

We are born with a purpose. God said to Jeremiah the prophet 1:5 “Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: 

The same God that formed him formed us and knows us personally… intimately. 

Psalm 139:13-16 “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit-by-bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

Luke 12:6-7 “What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.

According to these scriptures God has valued us, since our conception.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

I accept all of these Words for myself you should too! If God has marvelous plans for us, it is Satan’s job to distract us, to lead us astray, to show us things that look more important or more fun or make us feel that we are not recognized for the wonderful person we really are.

Don’t get distracted by anything, whether it seems good or if trouble comes along. If you do get distracted, put off your course it could mean you have lost your dearest, most precious connection…God.

The clowns of this life may be entertaining for a while, but it is my hope that if they have ever distracted me in the past, it will never happen again.

Anytime a distraction gets between you and your worship of God, your service to Him, your life in the Spirit, whatever, or whomever, that distraction is, they are closer to God than you, because they came between you and God. 

Keep your eye on the prize, know your goal and reach it. 

Isaiah 50:7 For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore, I will not be disgraced; Therefore, I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.

                  In your distraction is your destruction!