I have always been a huge fan of Dr. Seuss. I mean, how can you not enjoy brightly colored pages, with absurd poetry that makes as much sense as it doesn't?
Dr. Seuss had a wonderful knack for creating a world that was completely unique and unlike anything we might relate to on earth - yet, we could relate to it just the same.
Green Eggs and Ham, glippity glop, red fish, blue fish and Truffula Trees.
It didn't matter that there was no such thing as a Triple-Ax-Hacker, much less that it could be invented at the drop of a hat. It didn't matter that half the words he used were made up, just because he needed something to rhyme.
Dr. Seuss didn't play by the literary rules. He made up his own.
But as I thought about this, I began to ponder how many people try to do the same thing with Christianity.
We try to make up our own rules.
We want to pick and choose which laws apply to us. We want to look at God's Word and take certain parts and apply them to our lives, and throw the others away.
Love everyone? Has God met my neighbor? Seriously?
Give generously? If God had given me a better job....
Read His Word? Uh...I don't read...
Share the gospel? I was always told to use words when necessary....right?
....there are so many ways we try to pick and choose. Ways we try to mold our faith into something that's convenient. Something that's easy.
We want to make up our own words. Words that we think should rhyme with our story.
But we can't. We aren't Dr. Seuss. And we aren't writing children's books.
We're followers of Christ that have been given a task, a purpose. In order to fulfill that, we have to play by HIS rules.
We don't get to make up our own.
Come back to reality. Your life is not your own.
Remember whose rules you play by and quit making up words.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
The Short Straw
One trauma.
Three teenagers.
Three outcomes.
The first 17 year old girl left the scene of the accident in a body bag.
Her 18 year old boyfriend left in an ambulance, only to be connected to vents and machines so his heart would continue to beat and his lungs continue to breathe....but the inevitable is only a matter of time.
The other 17 year old girl walked out of the Emergency department. Alone.
Last week was their prom.
This week: Their funerals.
When the 17 year old girl was asked to identify the situation prior to the accident, she had said her two friends were in the front seat.
They were in a convertible. It was rainy. They were simply joyriding. Enjoying their youth...
...and forgot for one split second they were not invincible.
Reality sunk in fast.
The impact of the car on pavement blew the windshield in. In one single moment, a life ended, another was changed and yet another hangs in the balance. The crushing weight of loss presses down and begins to suffocate...
As the girl was recalling the incident she stared blankly toward the wall...
...without turning to look at anyone, she spoke.
"I drew the short straw. I drew the short straw, I lost. That's why I was in the backseat."
The short straw saved her life.
I tried to imagine what was going through her mind at that moment..
"Why? Why ME?"
......How was I spared?
.........Why am I walking, when my friends aren't even breathing?
....Could I have stopped them?
.........Could I have prevented this?
I have no answers, no words of wisdom...there is nothing that can take away the pain of this situation. Nothing that can undo what tragedy has occurred.
Her life has been changed forever.
She has however, for whatever reason, been given a second chance.
She was saved.
She drew the short straw.
I think when it comes to life we don't really have any idea what the "short straw" actually is.
We have ideas of how things should go, how life should work, but in the end it's all perspective.
And perspective can change in the blink of an eye.
With a career change..
With an unplanned pregnancy...
....with a crushed in windshield....
Life happens one day at time. There is no predictability.
We can define it as much as we like, but in the end, you only have the present.
NOW.
Short straw, long straw. It doesn't matter.
Just live. Take today alone. Forget yesterday and leave tomorrow for later.
You don't know what the outcome of your straw is going to be.
"We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall." Proverbs 16:33
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