He was seven feet tall with questionable taste in clothing and a stiff, ungainly gait. He was not known to be a great conversationalist. His skin was green and he had bolts in his neck. Some say he was a monster, others just said he was misunderstood. Either way, when he walked into the town square he was quite a sight!
I love the old Frankenstein movies with Boris Karloff as the monster. Classic stuff. In my opinion, the only good new Frankenstein movie is “Young Frankenstein” with Peter Boyle as the monster. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Boyle and Gene Wilder as Dr. Frankenstein singing (kind of) “Putting On The Ritz.”
Right now, you all have a mental picture of Frankenstein walking, don’t you? Arms outstretched, stiff legs moving slowly, one in front of the other. Tentatively moving forward, no joy, no happiness, just plodding forward, moving to the next goal.
The other night at Holy Grounds, Remnant’s coffee and Bible Study, Ronnie likened some Christians to Frankenstein. It was brilliant! I also told him I would steal his idea, and I have! I hear people say that they tried being a Christian, but it wasn’t for them. Or they just haven’t tried at all, and they assume that being a Christian is somehow boring or a hindrance to having fun or living.
These people are a lot like Frankenstein. They stumble through life stiffly, no joy, no happiness and no aim. They think that because they are miserable they must be godly.
Wrong!
Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
What is the thief in your life? What is keeping you from having the best life you can, the life that God has wanted for you all along? Oh sure, we know the easy answers, drugs, life controlling habits, poverty or other issues. The thing is, those are all external issues, they can be fixed by a lifestyle change. You can go to rehab or AA, you can try to quit cold turkey. We see those things as the thieves in our lives. We say, “If I could only overcome (fill in the blank), THEN my life would be happy…”
The problem with that line of thinking is that it isn’t true. You see, all of our life controlling issues come from something missing in us.
It grieves me that so many of the people with life controlling issues never once think about Jesus as the answer to their problems. Christians must accept responsibility for that. We have looked down on people with needs or issues and made them feel less than welcome when they come to church or if we see them in the streets. We have done the stiff, “I am better than you” Frankenstein walk for so long that the last place hurting people think they can turn is to us.
We need to love people like Jesus did. The David Crowder band has a great song we sing at Remnant. It says, “He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy. When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, And I realize just how beautiful You are, And how great Your affections are for me.” Life, and have it to the full… THAT is what we must model to those who see us each day. Not the Frankenstein walk, but the walk of the forgiven who freely acknowledge that we have a gift we can give to others.
Limbering up my walk… Jerry
No comments:
Post a Comment