joy (and thankful thursday)
Sunday School classes at our church started last week, including the adult "Wisdom Community," as we have so modestly named ourselves. One of our wonderful teachers mentioned a radio advertisement she'd heard the other day implying that listeners had worked hard, done well and deserved a new Lexus. This clearly rubbed her ever so slightly the wrong way (this may have something to do with her work for an aid agency, numerous trips to Kenya and daughter serving in Rwanda in the Peace Corps). I know full well that if we're being rewarded in life based upon what we "deserve," my motor would look a little more like this:
Yep, that's a Yugo.
Fortunately, there is a God who grants us grace despite our inability to earn it. Our own attempts at "deserving" = Yugo. God's grace?
Whew. Thank goodness. (That would be an Aston Martin DB9.)
My husband and I have been enjoying old episodes of Top Gear (UK version, obviously) via the-service-soon-formerly-to-be-known-as-Netflix (grr). Our "friends" Jeremy, Richard and James -- and the Stig -- spin their way around the test track and take on bizarre challenges with a zest for life that belies what otherwise could be merely a celebration of material things. Yes, it is a show about expensive cars. Ridiculously expensive cars, to be exact. (Except for when they do things like race beaters through Botswana in Season 10.) What keeps the show from becoming a pure paean to material acquisition? For me, it's the joy these men take in these vehicles. They don't baby the gazillion-dollar Bugatti... they recklessly race it against a Royal Air Force fighter jet. They take great and obvious pleasure in the cars they drive and the adventures they experience. The program becomes a celebration of the joy and the fun to be taken from something we've been given the ingenuity to construct.
To be sure, some of those engineers' efforts would be better spent developing clean-water systems rather than tweaking the traction control on a Maserati. I wouldn't want to argue that "Top Gear" is a pillar of enlightened, sustainable thinking. I do think, however, that Jeremy, Richard and James may have something figured out that many of us struggle to come to terms with, and that is the importance of living the lives we are given with joy. We are human, living in a human world both blessed and cursed by the intelligence God has given us. While we strive to make it a better place, we would do well to enjoy the opportunities we have been given. If our treasure is in jars of clay, what's the point of hoarding it?
It's Thursday! Here are just a few things I'm thankful for this week:
* hugs from "my" beautiful, nearly-grown kids when I filled in at youth group last night
* a clean kitchen floor
* cupcakes
* fun talks with friends
* excited lectures about the minutiae of the elementary school fire drill from the kid
* the Oregon Historical Society
* Chinese food
* old family photographs
Yep, that's a Yugo.
Fortunately, there is a God who grants us grace despite our inability to earn it. Our own attempts at "deserving" = Yugo. God's grace?
Whew. Thank goodness. (That would be an Aston Martin DB9.)
My husband and I have been enjoying old episodes of Top Gear (UK version, obviously) via the-service-soon-formerly-to-be-known-as-Netflix (grr). Our "friends" Jeremy, Richard and James -- and the Stig -- spin their way around the test track and take on bizarre challenges with a zest for life that belies what otherwise could be merely a celebration of material things. Yes, it is a show about expensive cars. Ridiculously expensive cars, to be exact. (Except for when they do things like race beaters through Botswana in Season 10.) What keeps the show from becoming a pure paean to material acquisition? For me, it's the joy these men take in these vehicles. They don't baby the gazillion-dollar Bugatti... they recklessly race it against a Royal Air Force fighter jet. They take great and obvious pleasure in the cars they drive and the adventures they experience. The program becomes a celebration of the joy and the fun to be taken from something we've been given the ingenuity to construct.
To be sure, some of those engineers' efforts would be better spent developing clean-water systems rather than tweaking the traction control on a Maserati. I wouldn't want to argue that "Top Gear" is a pillar of enlightened, sustainable thinking. I do think, however, that Jeremy, Richard and James may have something figured out that many of us struggle to come to terms with, and that is the importance of living the lives we are given with joy. We are human, living in a human world both blessed and cursed by the intelligence God has given us. While we strive to make it a better place, we would do well to enjoy the opportunities we have been given. If our treasure is in jars of clay, what's the point of hoarding it?
It's Thursday! Here are just a few things I'm thankful for this week:
* hugs from "my" beautiful, nearly-grown kids when I filled in at youth group last night
* a clean kitchen floor
* cupcakes
* fun talks with friends
* excited lectures about the minutiae of the elementary school fire drill from the kid
* the Oregon Historical Society
* Chinese food
* old family photographs
Hello Laura :)
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed reading this post - and of course - the UK Top Gear is the only way to go!
Good point about hoarding our treasure - much better to live life to the full - joy and all :)
Jo