The Grass is Always Greener

1 Corinthians 7:17-24

 

 

You know the saying, “The grass is greener on the other side”. It’s human nature to always want what we don’t have. It’s also human nature to complain about what we do have. It’s easy to complain about your boss, your spouse, the weather, the traffic; take your pick. Yes indeed, we find something to complain about every day!

 

When I first started working for my employer, he hired me to do marketing. It was fun, challenging and rewarding. But about the second year the personnel needs changed, so he moved me out of a private office to the main entry office. Overnight, I became the receptionist, the operator, the mail boy and the filing clerk; all jobs that I felt were beneath me; beneath my experience and my age.

 

Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth about keeping their attitude in check about marriage, religious traditions, work, social and economic standing.

 

²² If the Lord calls you, and you are a slave, remember that Christ has set you

free from the awful power of sin; and if he has called you and you are free, remember that you are now a slave of Christ. ²³ You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to him—be free now from all these earthly prides and fears.            TLB    

 

“You have been bought and paid for by Christ, so you belong to him.”  It took quite a while for God to straighten my attitude about being “demoted”. I suppose I could have looked for another job, but then I wouldn’t have learned a valuable lesson.

 

Above all else, no matter what your circumstance, you are a child of God. For Paul it didn’t matter whether a person was married or single; circumcised or gentile; slave or free – they were a child of God, “bought and paid for by Christ”.

 

The same message is true for you today. God has called you to serve Him in one capacity or another; through your marriage, your job, your church, your community. Find your calling and serve him with all your heart, mind and soul.

 

¹⁷ Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them.            NIV

 

 

(If God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)

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Pale Blue Dot

Romans 10:5-17

 

 

“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”

From the book Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan

 

Carl Sagan seems to believe that all there is to life is what is here; that there is no after life; no purpose to our lives beyond right now. But the truth of the matter is that all of us are searching for meaning in our lives.

 

We try to find it through relationships; as a spouse or as a parent. We try to find it through work; reaching that next level.

 

 

 

 

We try to find it through possessions; he who has the most toys wins. We try to find it through science and reason; not unlike Carl Sagan. We try to find it through being religious; going to church and being nice.

 

 

 

The Israelites searched for meaning through the Law and their customs. Paul addressed this in today’s passage: “For they don’t understand that Christ has died to make them right with God. Instead they are trying to make themselves good enough to gain God’s favor by keeping the Jewish laws and customs, but that is not God’s way of salvation.”

 

Instead, Paul pointed to a simpler way: ^“For salvation that comes from trusting Christ—which is what we preach—is already within easy reach of each of us; in fact, it is as near as our own hearts and mouths. For if you tell others with your own mouth that Jesus Christ is your Lord and believe in your own heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

 

It is true that we live on a pale blue dot that seems pretty insignificant; “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”.

 

 

 

 

But the living God stepped into His creation in the person of His one and only son so that you and I might know Him and find purpose, not only in this life, but in our life to come. Amen.

 

 

How Do You Measure a Year?

 

John 15:1-17

 

“How do you measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.

In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In 525,600 minutes -

how do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?”

 

These are the opening lyrics from the song, “Season of Love” from the play Rent. Ultimately, this song is asking how we use our time; our talents; our treasure. How do we find purpose and meaning in our life?

 

In some ways, these lyrics parallel Jesus’ words in today’s passage. “I am the vine; you

are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.”  Jesus is calling us to bear fruit. He is calling us to invest our lives in those around us. And he is asking us how we will measure our fruit.

 

But life can be long and difficult at times. It is hard to invest in others all the time. People are so frustrating. Jesus gives us a hint of how to be consistent in bearing fruit. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

 

To use another metaphor, bearing fruit is not an individual sport. It’s a team sport. A player on a team needs to listen to the coach, do what they say; not just to get playing time, but to be a better player, to help the team win. To produce fruit we must remain in the vine.

 

To bear fruit doesn’t require you to be a pastor or a missionary. As my pastor says each week, “We are all ministers”. We are ministers not just when we do church activities, but at work, at home, driving in the car, talking to the neighbor or even going through the drive through at McDonalds.

 

“525,600 minutes!

525,000 journeys to plan.

525,600 minutes.

How can you measure the life of a woman or man?”

 

That’s a lot of minutes to do something with. What will you do with your minutes this year, or today for that matter? How do you measure a year in your life?