Weekend Update

Mama and Papa Berenstain visited the bookstore on Saturday. I.T. and I spent many an hour on the couch with these characters when our kids were little; we owned their complete set of storybooks. Maybe that's why I was so giddy when these bears showed up to wave at passersby.

 Kregel Parable Christian Store special events unleash the excitement that exists in the everyday here, where sharing the hope we have in Jesus is our main job. It was a fun morning.

After my shift with the bears I sashayed over to the mall to play the part of the Waldo shopper for a youth group event. My sister and her husband are youth leaders at their church and they organized this game where they divided the youth group into two teams, told them where their Waldo shopper would be shopping at specific times throughout the mall and instructed them to locate Waldo. I was the Waldo shopper for team one and my oldest son was the Waldo shopper for team two. The winning team would be the first to identify their Waldo shopper, receive their final clue from him/her and complete the task given in the clue. At 6 sharp I was at Stride Rite pretending to shop for toddler shoes. No one approached me. At 6:15 I strode into the U B U Furniture store, where a group of watchful teens lingered at the entryway. I didn't look at them, but acted absorbed in sofa sleepers and wall decor. Suddenly I was surrounded by teenagers who had decided to go for it, "Are you Waldo?" one asked. Man! That didn't take long. I was scheduled to be in a different store every 15 minutes until 8:00 pm. It was only 6:27. I gave them their clue. They proceeded to Barnes and Noble, purchased a Where's Waldo book and following the instructions from the clue, located an unsuspecting stranger, a six year old, in the food court, and gave the book away- thus completing the random act of kindness that made them winners of the game.

Back at the ranch, I tuned in to JQ99  (I no longer have to build this homemade antenna to get the station- JQ put up a new tower!) where the show, Ignite Radio, was playing. The host was talking live with some local Christian school students. A few guys in the studio claimed to be agnostic, a couple of others were followers of Jesus. The discussion centered on how and why a person decides to be or not to be a Christian and what it means to be one. One guy commented that he didn't really feel he needed God. Another comment was that God never seemed to show up to help, so maybe he isn't really real. A third was something like, "hey, you don't have to be a Christian to be nice and polite and kind- you can be that if you aren't a Christian and anyway some Christians aren't that at all. I just want to be and do what I want while I'm here, not what God says I should be or do."

 As I listened I felt a strong urge to accept the invitation to call in and talk to these guys. So I dialed the station. Four minutes later I was live on the air- joining the conversation. This is what I shared:

"...from my own experience- what I formerly thought the Bible was- a rulebook for life, a How to Be a Good Christian resource- is not what the Bible is at all. The Bible is a story of who God is and what he's done for me. It's the story of his love for me and how he pursues me, patiently, every second of every day. It's the story of what he's done for you, his love for you and how he pursues you- waits patiently for you every single day....

...Nice? Polite? Kind? Sure. I want to be all of those things. I try. But I cannot always be nice, polite, kind- it just isn't in my natural make-up to be those things all the time. I'm too selfish. I want what I want and I want it now. That's how I mostly am. The only hope I have of being nice, polite, kind- when I don't feel like being nice, polite, kind is to turn my eyes upon Jesus Christ, to look full in his wonderful face- it is as the old hymn states- the things of earth grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace. This is why I need him. I need his forgiveness for my selfishness, I need to gaze upon his word to refresh my soul- to taste and see that the Lord- he is Good, to everyone who calls upon his name. I need to see something more beautiful and everlasting than what this world has to offer. I need the love of Jesus- he is that Love we all knowingly or unknowingly crave. It cannot be found anywhere else, because that kind of love is Him...

...Maybe we have an idea of how God should show up and when and where and for how long and what he should do when he arrives. But our ideas are nothing compared to his. His timing is unfathomable to us. He's not on Eastern Standard or Israel Daylight or Greenwich Mean time and he most definitely is not on our personal, want it right now my way time. The Bible tells story after story of times when God was silent even as the people cried out for him. We don't get to see the bigger picture. We're stuck here on this little minuscule planet in the universe, called earth. Many times we don't have eyes to see even when God is standing right in front of us anyway. But God- he knows what's going on. He's got it covered. It's all his and he controls the thing. I choose to believe that and trust Him. I've not met anyone yet who I'd rather trust with my future or my life..."

The guys were good to this old lady. I didn't sense that any tomatoes were being thrown through the airwaves or anything like that. I prayed silently for the one who said he didn't feel a need for God. I prayed that he would soon discover his desperate and deep need of Him. 

What does it mean to be a Christian? To me it means setting my sights on the One who created me in his image and for his glory, accepting his gift of forgiveness with thanksgiving and doing my best to take the high road, by way of humility, until I'm resting in my Father's arms.

Here's to the better way to live! (song by Jason Gray off his Everything Sad is Coming Untrue cd)