August 31, 2007
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Listening to Dr. Dobson today. His guest is Ken Davis. The show starts out with parents' methods for dealing with back seat misbehavior (Look what's on my knuckle... Ow! What was on your knuckle?! Your eyeball). So what's a parent to do, pull the kids out of the car and leave them there? Reach over and smack them at 75 mph? The kids know exactly how long Dad's arm is. Moms are different. They just "come on back" and trust the car to drive itself. Mrs. Compukermann would tell us, "I'm gonna stop this car..." And you know what? She did. I won't share the rest.
Mr. Davis begins his talk with a frantic story about how he forgot some important speech notes in a hotel room and got on a elevator to retrieve the notes from his room. He got on the elevator, turned around and pushed the button for his floor, but when he arrived the door did not open. He pushed the button for another floor, but the door did not open at that floor either. He "lost it" and started yelling that the elevator was stuck and banging on the door when he heard a small voice behind him telling him that it was not stuck, which was strange, because he had gotten on the elevator alone. Then he discovered that the doors on the other side of the elevator were open and there were nine people waiting, but no one wanted to get on with him! Hey, we are not perfect. I'm not ok and you're not ok.
Humor is a gentle way to acknowledge human frailty. Laughter on such occasions comes from a person who doesn't take themselves too seriously. A person who can't laugh takes themselves too seriously. A person who takes themselves too seriously doesn't take God seriously enough. We are not ok, but God is ok, and He loves us just the way we are.
We need to be able to laugh more. God is the author of joy who makes it possible to deal with the fact that we are not ok. Sometimes as Christians we claim to know God, the source of joy, but we still walk around with our heads down and mournfully complaining. Someone should inform the faces of such people that they know the source of joy. People are attracted to joyful faces. Think of how excited dogs get when their masters get home! (They is so happy to announce what they have done.) If Christians would really show the joy available in Christ we might not even need comedy shows to make us laugh.
What truth could give us this kind of joy? Why is it ok that we are not ok? Because God loves us anyway. If we replayed a video of our lives, we would find there are much worse things than saying nasty things in a elevator. Sin has destroyed our lives, but the creator of the universe knows that. He saw every second of all of our videos and still decided to send the best that He had, His only Son. Deep down joy only comes when we understand that even though we are sinners, God loves us anyway. When we know that, we can throw back our heads and laugh. We have nothing to prove, nothing to hide and nothing to loose.
Edit: In this context "not ok" refers to the fact that although forgiven, we are not perfect, but are under grace. It does not mean that it is all right to take wrongdoing lightly and continue to knowingly engage in it because of the fact that we are forgiven.
I also went to Billy's Boot Camp today.
Comments (2)
I only had to stop the car once to make believers out of my children. Yes obviously they did live to tell about it but after that the threat worked very well. I tried very hard not to make a promise I did not keep. It might have been for something very good or the promise of the result of bad behavior. My kids were fast learners and we got on just fine (most of the time) I was blessed with wonderful children. That was a most enjoyable time in my life.
Mrs Compukerman
Hey, I don't remember being converted in the car...
Yep, only liars don't keep promises. I remember that one, too.
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