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Overlooked and Overdone.........

My professor in college on the first day of class proposed a question i have never forgotten..."Have you lost the wonder of it all?"... and I had... I was 18 years old with no idea of my future calling... no clue how hard it would be to survive... day in, day out.. how time would one day fly by... how much I had to be thankful for... but by the time you figure all this out... it is but a distant memory...

Before the ceiling fan hits full cycle and the lights completely dim... we are fast asleep... rethinking the survivor finale or why the Red Sox lost or what we forgot to do at work... then before we know it, the alarm clock rudely abrupts a dream, nightmare, or nothing... Snooze never last long enough... and we are forced to robotically embrace the morning chore of waking up.....

we follow the winding road to our daily job... the hours tick... tick... lunch... tick... tick.. back at home... kids, chores, homework, class, gym... one episode of judge Judy and the routine cycles again... we sleep.. alarm.. awake..

Jesus made another famous statement to a group who were stuck in a rut... they had been waiting a lifetime for Moses (a famous prophet)... who was dead... what they should have been looking for was a Savior... who stood directly in front of them... yet they were so caught up in the "routine" that they missed the Redeemer...

Jesus stated "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures for eternal life". John 6:27.. Another words... we should not get so caught up in obtaining the things of this world... be it... money, toys, awards, recognition...

we should instead be working to obtain eternal awards... how is this done? It is the small things we do during the day... turning our cheeks.. saying no when tempted... putting others before us... loving the unloved... being patient... biting our tongues... and so on... how hard do we really work on these tasks? Why do we work so hard and then become so bitter when we fail to receive an earthly award? Recognition on earth is nice... but recognition from a Savior is the one thing... that in the end... will truly matter................. If we all gave just a little more commitment to kindness and the respect of others... less judging... and more forgiveness.. the overlooked section of our life (at work) would mean little in comparison to the "awards banquet' in the heavens.........

Comments

kipacha said…
The wonder of it all....for me, this begins with the lineage of Christ. I know that some people are like "what???" But as I read Matthew 1, I find reason to pause. Matthew specifically points out several women. And these women are some that the Church would judge and excommunicate. But here they are in Jesus' family tree - Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary.

Tamar - a woman who played the part of a prostitute to seduce her father-in-law in giving her an heir. Rahab - a Caananite and prostitute who became the mother of Boaz. Ruth - a Moabite that laid at the feet of a man she wasn't married to (Boaz). Bathsheba - a woman who had an adulterous affair with King David who had her husband murdered so he could marry her. And finally Mary - the unwed mother of our Savior.

When I consider all these women and how that Matthew pauses to give details about them when he's reciting the lineage of Jesus, I am humbled and challenged to seek out friendships with those that the Church deems unforgiveable or unusable. Jewish society said the same about all 5 of these women, and they should have been stoned according to the Law. But God chose them to be a part of His bigger plan of redeeming mankind. What better way to do this than to use the ragamuffins of society!
May 19, 2010 at 5:07 PM
I Am NOT Just a Number said…
Interesting perspective... I hate to call them "rafamuffins" literally because when we lay out our sins for all to see... it's hard to determine who is and who is not a ragamuffin... we all deserve to be stoned.. dont we? I mean what is the difference between thinking something and actually doing it.. (as a man thinks in his heart, so is he)... I believe it would have been nearly impossible to find a sinless woman or man for that matter to be in the lineage of Christ... I guess God preferred doers over thinkers...
May 30, 2010 at 5:54 AM
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