Romans 1:18-25
But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.
So God said, in effect, “If that’s what you want, that’s what you get.” It wasn’t long before they were living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes!
Scripture quotations from The Message. © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress, Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved.
I’ll admit it… I’m hooked on A&E’s “Duck Dynasty!” I realize that not everyone “gets” this show, and I know that it is made-for-TV and borders on the ridiculous at times. But I laugh so hard… especially at the wacky Uncle, Si Robertson. On a recent episode, Uncle Si won $2000 at the Duck Commander Company Casino Night. He spent it on a massage chair to take to work. His nephew – and CEO of Duck Commander - Willie, told him that the chair had to go… that he had to buy something else with the money. In true “Uncle Si style,” he chose to go to a children’s pizza place, similar to Chuck E. Cheese. He said they had the best pizza in the world.
While waiting for the staff to make him a pizza, Si began to play the games. He knew these were designed for children, but he said they had two of his favorite things… lights and bells. When he learned that he could win prizes, Si became determined to win a big stuffed purple gorilla… which was “priced” at 5000 winning tickets. Willie bought $200 worth of tokens, and Si began to play the games again… and he focused on one in particular that he said he had figured out how to beat. Si soon had this electronic game spitting out a mound of tickets, which he used to “purchase” the stuffed gorilla. He used the rest of his money to buy pizza to share with his entire extended family, and the closing scene of the show depicts them all sitting down at a table laden with pizzas from this establishment. Si’s “excuse” was that (paraphrasing here)… “Hey, I won this $2000, and I can spend it any way I want!”
Now here’s the deal… Si Robertson is quoted as saying he never leaves home without his sweet tea and his Bible. He doesn’t just know about God… He KNOWS Him! But Si has a tendency to get a little obsessive about things and lose his focus – or at least to temporarily shift his attention to things like playing children’s games to win a stuffed gorilla. And yes, I do realize that this was all probably a total fabrication by the show’s writers/producers… designed to entertain us and make us laugh. But many of us have made an art of losing focus in all aspects of our lives. When it comes to our acknowledgment of God’s truth and serving Him accordingly, losing focus is not the least bit funny.
Too many of us have become sidetracked or distracted by the things of the world. We’ve decided that “it’s our life, and I’ll live it however I want!” We’ve justified our “rabbit trails” by either turning our back on God and saying that things wouldn’t be this way or that if He really existed and/or loved us… or we have decided that we are entitled to do as we please – God will love us anyway. We know better on both fronts. But it’s sort of like when you sit down at one of these “pizza parlor” games or a slot machine and lose… you just have to keep trying until you win – even though you are falling deeper into the pit of failure and despair.
I saw a news report where a “lottery expert” who had won big cash prizes seven times or more tried to show a reporter how to beat the system and win… and the reporter spent countless dollars in order to “win” only a few. It didn’t work… and neither does trying to excuse our lies, wrongdoing, and the twisting of God’s truths. And often, the more we try to satisfy our own whims and desires, the farther away from God we fall. We cannot do as we please and expect God to bless us. We cannot spend the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ however we please. I think that at the core of things, most of us know this. Our lives are not a reality TV show. The time has come for us to treat God with respect… to honor His gift of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins… to love and serve Him with our whole heart – and without excuses!
In Spiritual terms, we have more than won the lottery. We have received something much grander than the biggest stuffed purple gorilla. We feast at the table of the LORD on blessings far greater than the world’s best pizza. It’s time we opened our eyes and started acting like God’s children. It’s time we operated in God’s truth – and shared it with others each and every day. It’s time we dropped the excuses and started focusing completely on acknowledging God in every aspect of our lives. What about you? Are you ready to commit wholeheartedly… or are you still trying to win a purple gorilla?
©2013 Debbie Robus
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