Our Journey with Christ

Sometimes you gotta stop and take a look around

“Sometimes you gotta stop and take a look around!”

According to Ferris Bueller’s philosophy of life in the movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (truly a classic!), we must get off life’s merry-go-round once and a while and take a look around.  Maybe do an inventory check of our lives.

Well, today is one of those days.  Today is a picture-perfect, chamber of commerce day!  This is why we live in a place with huge bugs and oppressive humidity!  Today I’m taking the kids out of school and we are all playing “hooky” to go and watch a Spring Training baseball game.  Not just any game, but the New York Yankees!  Thanks to the generosity of some dear friends, I have 6 tickets to today’s game.  The whole family is going (except for JP because he, ironically, can’t miss baseball practice!) and we are all decked out in Yankee garb!  My beautiful girls have never been so beautiful!  Since JP can’t go, we have the privilege of having my dad join us. 

Baseball is the most beautiful game ever invented!  To sit in the stands with my family, eating hot dogs and drinking cold suds, watching Derek Jeter and the 26-time World Champion Yankees… it just doesn’t get any better than this on a day like today!  Kids can’t go to school and miss an opportunity like this!  Sometimes you gotta stop and take a look around!

I’m so thankful that Jesus can relate to this feeling.  Sometimes in the midst of His earthly life, He had to get away from the daily grind with His close friends and unwind.  How are you doing?  Is it time to play “hooky?”  Go for it!  Don’t feel guilty!  Love life enough to enjoy it!  Love Jesus enough to give Him thanks for days like today… and EVERYDAY!

No Jimmers!

I just don’t get it!  How do you use chalk to draw a picture like that?  I don’t get how a fax machine works.  I never will.  Someone once tried to explain it to me, but I’m still baffled.  Those who have artistic gifts befuddle me too.  My daughter, Jessie and her friend, Michelle Bradley recently won first prize for a “replica of a master” of this chalk drawing.   I am truly amazed and I’m so proud of my daughter, Jessie.

A good friend of mine named Jim told me that when he was a boy and came home from school with a “pretty picture” he was told, “that’s nice Jimmer, now throw it in the trash can.”  His works of art became known as “Jimmers,” stuff that got a quick comment and were immediately sent to the trash heap.

Don’t you wonder about what God thinks of the artwork of our lives?  Are they “Jimmers?”  Does He say, “that’s nice Jeff, now throw it away” or does the artwork of my life really matter?  Really matter to Him!

It’s absurd to think that Jessie’s award-winning artwork will be washed away with the next good rain shower.  All that hard work will be colored water running down the nearest drain.  What happens to the artwork of our lives?  Will it all just run down the drain?

Isn’t it great being a lover of Jesus and knowing that our lives aren’t “Jimmers!”  Isn’t it awesome knowing that we’re not just colored water running down the nearest drain.  Our lives in Christ are supposed to be replicas of The Master!  Jesus!  When our lives are a reflection of Him, they truly are stunningly beautiful! No “Jimmers” with Jesus!  Clothed in His beautiful righteousness, washed in His blood, made new through His Spirit… a Masterpiece!