‘Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.’
The dog said: ‘That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?’
So God agreed.
On the second day, God created the monkey and said:
‘Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.’
The monkey said: ‘Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?’
And God agreed.
On the third day, God created the cow and said:
‘You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.’
The cow said: ‘That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years… How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?’
And God agreed again.
On the fourth day, God created humans and said:
‘Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you20twenty years.’
But the human said: ‘Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?’
‘Okay,’ said God, ‘You asked for it.’
So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone.
Life has now been explained to you.
There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I’m doing it as a public service.
A man was exploring caves by the Seashore. In one of the caves he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could.
He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock . Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!
Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay balls he had left.
Then it struck him. He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
It’s like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn’t look like much from the outside. It isn’t always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.
We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.
There is a treasure in each and every one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show us that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.
May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them. I am so blessed by the gems of friendship I have with you. Thank you for looking beyondmy clay vessel.
APPRECIATE EVERY SINGLE
THING YOU HAVE, ESPECIALLY YOUR FRIENDS!
LIFE IS TOO SHORT AND FRIENDS ARE TOO FEW!
Pass this on to another Clay Ball!!!
Do not ask the Lord to Guide your Footsteps if you are not willing to MOVE your Feet’
Word of God speak
Would You pour down like rain
Washing my eyes to see
Your majesty
To be still and know
That You’re in this place
Please let me stay and rest
In Your holiness
Word of God speak
As I continue to think about the difference that Christ is supposed to have made in my life this song comes to mind. Tonight at Church we sang this song. I couldn’t help but think that this prayer is wrong. I shouldn’t be asking for God to speak to me. He’s already doing so. I should be asking for ears to hear the words. I should be asking for a heart that’s willing to listen and obey.
I’m ashamed to admit this, but I need to. I was in the elevator of my apartment building on my way to church tonight. A couple (probably in their 50’s) asked if I knew anyone that would like to earn a few quick bucks and help them move their couch. I didn’t. They asked if I would help them. I told them no.
Seriously!! WTF!?!
I want to say “how could I have done that.” But I know exactly how I could do that. I was being selfish. I didn’t want to get all hot and sweaty. I don’t like manual labor and I didn’t want to be uncomfortable. I didn’t want to be late to church. I didn’t want to be inconvenienced and do the right thing. How did I get to this point? How can I tune the voice of God so completely out of my life? Is this left over from the years where I walked away for God? When I actively tried to silence God in my heart and mind.
No, there’s more to it than that. I’m still silencing Him. I still tune the still quite voice in my heart out. I focus on my needs and brokeness and I choose not to hear. I choose to ignore the call. I am so hyper focused on my needs and brokeness that I don’t see what God is truely trying to speak to me or through me.
In my last post I talked about the difference between us that the rest of the world. I can see a difference between the world and the main church. It’s deeds. The do’s and don’ts of Christianity are well known in the secular world. They (christians) can point to their actions and say there’s a difference. I’m wondering if perhaps they and I are missing the point of the difference?
I keep coming back to the love thing.
John 13:35 – By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
1 John 3:11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.
Anyone else remember the old worship song “We are one in the Spirit?” That song was great.
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
They will know we are Christians by our love
I feel ashamed to admit it, but I don’t think there’s a difference in me. People obviously don’t know that I’m a Christian by my love. They can see that I’m gay by the way I act, but they can’t tell that I’m a Christian!?! Shouldn’t my faith be such a part of my life that I wear it on my sleeve just like my sexuality? Is it about comfort? Is it easier to tell people I’m gay than to tell them I have faith in Christ? Or is it that showing love is just hard because I’m basically a selfish person?
I don’t think I’m missing the point. I think I know what the difference is (Love). I think I know what I need to do (Love more). But love is hard. I need to get over myself and start loving like I was meant to. Where does this selfishness come from? Is it just “the sinful flesh” or is there more to it? Definitely need to meditate on this a bit.
There’s gotta be a difference
It’s gotta be significant
If You’re really inside changing my life
You would shine, You would be evident
If there’s a difference
I’ve actually been thinking a lot about this lately. What’s the difference in my life? How is Christ making me different? As I struggle to embrace the view that sin is relative, as suggested by Paul in Romans 14, I still have to wonder how does that jive with Revelations 3:14-22 where John talks about God rejecting people because their deeds were luke warm. I’ve always interpreted the bible in such black and white terms. Could this also be interpreted through relativism? Perhaps, perhaps John is warning that your actions need to motivated by love of God and love of your neighbor as Jesus said when He summed up the law and the prophets. But that’s getting into a heady area I don’t want to get into right now.
What’s the difference in my life? How does Christ make me different from those around? Do I love more than others? Can they see that love in me? I’m not sure they can. I’m a horribly selfish person. I don’t help those in need. I don’t feed the hungry or clothe the naked. When I tell people I go to church they’re always surprised. At first I thought it may be the whole gay thing, but maybe there’s more to it than that. They don’t see the love of Christ in me and so don’t expect it.
hmmm…. I don’t like that I can’t even tell the difference between me and the rest of the world.
Not sure where that all leaves me other than this is a good song and I need to do some more thinking.
