Kodi and the Missional Lifestyle
13 years ago
Monday, February 2, 2009
The Little Girl in the Coffee Shop
I was just sitting in one of my favorite coffee shop haunts enjoying a red-eye and engaging in my favorite semi-creepy habit: people watching. It is amazing how God shows up in the little moments. I was watching a young girl maybe 3 or 4 with curly blonde hair and blue eyes devour a chocolate muffin. She was relentless in her pursuit, sparing no concern for the chocolate residue on her fingers and building around her mouth. Her beleaguered mother watched with split attention as she tended the small baby boy in her arms. The girl took pause from her delicious morsel to survey her surroundings, perhaps distracted by the change in music stations. As she looked around inquisitively, her mother succumbed to the great temptation of her gender, chocolate. The little girl's attention was refocused by her mother's intrusion upon her scrumptious treat. She was not caroused by her mother's invasion of her sacred sweet. Her expression of childlike curiosity was instantly replaced with a look of scorn. It is the kind of look that only the caprice of a four year old can produce. She began to fuss complaining to her mother that it was her muffin. She was obstinate complaining that her mother stole "her" muffin. How could her mother be so cruel as to take her cherished muffin? Her mother then calmly explained that it was she who had provided the muffin, she who had bought it, she who had faithfully provided everything for her daughter right down to the muffin. What a dumb little girl right? How could she be so blind as to not see that the muffin never belonged to her in the first place?
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It's funny, because even though I believe you speak of the ignorance, stupidity, slightly sarcastically to say that we are the same, we often grab our possessions, our actions, our affections, our lives even, and call them our own, and I realize that this is the point you're getting at, but the funny thing is I not only act like this little girl, but judge those who also do!
ReplyDeleteI've been shown, well, kind, it's hard to swallow, but anyhow, I've been shown some of my hypocrisy in reading through John. I read the responses of the crowd to Jesus, responses such as, "This is hard teaching, who can accept it?" and "How long will you keep us in suspense, if you are the Christ, tell us plainly," and think to myself, "Well, those aren't so unreasonable to ask for, are they? Don't I often give up my thinking and trying to understand and believe Jesus because it's hard? Don't I really wish that He would just shout in my ear, 'Levi, I'm real! Believe!' and then just.. make me believe." Perhaps these wishes are genuine, that I really do want to believe, but the more I think on it, the more I think that I wish these things because I want what I believe is the ease and control of following Christ.
Oh am I in for a surprise..
It's not mine though, is it?
Is it always my battle to fight? How much must we rely on God to put belief in us? It's funny, perhaps in acknowledging that God is the owner, creator, of all things, we must give up our hearts and our money, so that He will work in both, although I fear in phrasing it that way that the misunderstanding of, "Oh, well I'll just give my X amount to the Church and forget about it," presents itself. I think it should be a lot more invested, if that makes sense. It sounds odd to me sometimes.
I am glad you caught the satire, otherwise I would look like a jerk
ReplyDeleteFortunately I know you well enough to catch that. Otherwise, yeah, I would be a little put-off.
ReplyDeleteOr blindly agree, one of the two.