A police officer was observing an obviously stressed-out, impatient, tail-gating driver. At a traffic light the driver was honking the horn frantically, yelling obscenities, and making obscene gestures! The police officer pulled the driver over and ordered this person out of the car. The officer said, “You’re under arrest!” The angry driver started arguing loudly that you can’t arrest someone for honking their horn. The police officer said, “I’m arresting you for car theft!” The driver said this wasn’t a stolen car and the registration papers will prove it! The officer said, “I’ve seen your bumper sticker: ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ Naturally, I assume you had stolen the car.”
One of the troubles we have in living the Christians life is: WE FORGET! We sometimes forget about God’s goodness to us. Like the ancient Israelites wandering in the desert, we grumble and complain about our problems, forgetting the countless blessings God gives us. We’re prone to take those blessings for granted. We make promises and commitments to God, and then forget about them.
In his book “Blue Like Jazz,” author Donald Miller imagines Moses telling the golden calf worshipers, “Your problem is not that God is not fulfilling, your problem is that you are spoiled.” An unconditionally loving parent, God gives us countless blessings. God spoils us! So we tend to take God’s gifts for granted.
James 1:17 (from “The Message” version) reminds us: “So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light.”
To stay on course, we need to remember daily that God is always blessing us, loving us, giving us light in our darkness. But we need to take care not to takes these gifts for granted. If we display bumper stickers on our car, or post Christian devotional messages on Facebook or Pinterest, or simply SAY we’re Christians, it’s extremely important that we LIVE those messages in our daily lives.
The God-inspired messages we speak and display are meant to be reflections of the way we live. Let those reflections shine forth the “rivers of light” that God sends to us!
