Gas Generator

Getting Ready

After several trips to the grocery store, half a day spent working on our old generator in case we lose power, charging batteries, making sure we have some propane to cook with in case of a power outage, I think we are ready for the snow and ice.

“You know the saying, ‘Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.’ You are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can’t read the signs of the times!”  (Matthew 16:2-3)  Jesus sounds frustrated as He speaks with religious leaders in His day with their questions to Him about all sorts of unimportant matters.  They just did not ‘get it’.

We all realize the need to prepare ahead of time for weather which will affect our driving, the availability of electricity and other needs.  We prepare ahead of the snow and ice coming in because we realize that after it is here you just can’t do some things easily if at all.

Jesus was frustrated with them because they, to use His words, “strained out a gnat and swallowed a camel!”(Matthew 23:24).  They faulted Him because He did not wash before a meal and yet found justification in committing the greatest injustice of all time in crucifying the Son of God!

I think we do a lot of that today.  We argue and fight about almost any issue that we have a strong opinion about.  Yet in focusing on these things, in fighting so that point of view ‘wins’, we miss that which is more important.  Being ‘right’ usually never changes anyone’s mind but it does keep us from addressing the most important matters of life, love and eternity.

Football Field

Football

Along with 110 million others I watched as quarterback Russell Wilson played what has been called a ‘perfect game’ leading his Seattle Seahawks to a 43 to 8 rout over the much ballyhooed Payton Manning and his Denver Broncos.

Russell Who?  I must admit that like most of those 110 million I ad never heard of Russell Wilson.   I am not one who watches a lot of sports.  In fact the Super Bowl is about the only game I watch.  The first words I heard Russell Wilson speak were following the game when he spoke of his father’s belief in him when he told his son, “Why not you?”   Russell was divided between the two sports loves of his life, baseball and football.  He had the opportunity to play 2nd base with the Baltimore Orioles but his father knew he could do more.  Even though at 5’11” and 206 lbs he was not great quarterback material.

Who believes in you?  Perhaps along the road of your life a lot of people have put you down, bullied you or made fun of you.  I had a lot of that growing up and I never understood why.  But my mother and my father believed in me and that helped to believe that even if others didn’t see much in me, there was more there.

Simon Peter, James, John whose images are forever etched in images of stained glass in our churches, were commercial fisherman, and not very good ones at that.  Matthew, who’s name is born on the first  book of the New Testament was one of the most hated people of his day, a tax collector (read here Internal Revenue Service!).   When Jesus called to them to follow Him, He saw something in all of them that nobody, perhaps not even themselves saw.  He believed that underneath that rough exterior, underneath the bitterness or cynicism that this world is so adept at kindling in us, there was much, much more.

Just maybe there isn’t anyone in your life who believes in you.  But God does.  “He (Jesus) came to His own, yet his own people did not receive him.  However, to all who received him, those believing in his name, he gave authority to become God’s children.” (John 1:11-12)  WOW! Jesus was rejected too!  And the One who was rejected and knows what it’s like is offering you something better… even that winning the Super Bowl!  Talk about Someone believing in you!  So what will you say?  Say yes!  And the greatest adventure you can ever know begins!