Good Enough

 by Chris Jones

I think the average person spends most of their life on cruise control. I know it’s that way with me sometimes. I have a certain handful of ultimate responsibilities. As long as I can just maintain, everything’s OK. They become the standard measurements by which I gauge whether my efforts, regardless of how minimal, are good enough. Is my wife happy? Check! Are my kids on a reasonable trajectory to become adults that I’ll be proud of? Check! Are all other miscellaneous components of my life and home in good working order (at least in appearance)? Check! Good. Sit back. Relax. Everything’s good.

Really? Everything’s good?

What about them?

Who?

“The hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned”

Matthew 25:41-46 says, “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.”

Take a look around. Really take time to evaluate what’s happening  in the world around you.  The kids who run through your neighborhood, do they have needs you can meet?  The widow down the block, when is the last time someone offered to help with her yard, or simply stopped to visit?  The stranger holding the sign at the corner, regardless of what you believe the truth of his situation to be, when is the last time he had a full meal and sat with someone who cares to hear his story?

Is it time to redefine the standards by which we measure the effectiveness of our efforts?  Whether we take scripture like this literally or figuratively, divine truth or man’s opinion of what might happen, it should (at the very least) cause us to pause, look at the world around us, and ask ourselves, “is this really good enough?”

What Do You See In The Mirror

 by Chris Jones

We have love/hate relationships with mirrors.  They confirm both what we do and don’t want to know about ourselves.  We linger in front of them when we like what we see, and avoid them at all costs when we know we won’t.  Like it or not, they can’t help but be an honest reflection of who we are, physically anyway.

What if there was a mirror that reflected our personalities?  Would we linger, admiring the quality of our character, or hurry by, satisfied instead to believe the myths of who we think ourselves to be?

If social media is good for anything, it’s a relatively effective mirror.  In it, we may see how our personalities might be perceived by others.  Look at your last couple weeks of facebook posts, for example.  Is the person  you see humble or full of pride?  Are they confident or insecure?  Do they draw attention to themself or promote others?  Do they complain and worry too much?  Do they project faith or fear?

Matthew 5:13-16 provides a very simple and practical image we should find reflected in that mirror.  We should be salt.  We should be light.  We should make our world and everything in it better.

Take some time to check the mirror today.  Does it reflect what you want people to see?  Does it reflect an accurate image of yourself?  Does it reflect the image of Christ?

True Greatness

 by Chris Jones

As Mother’s Day approaches, I’m reminded that greatness is a relative concept.  The word itself implies something remarkably different in scope or dimension, from what we might considered ordinary.  It creates a perception that greatness isn’t for us, that we’re destined to commit our lives to common endeavors, supposing greatness is reserved for better people, more important people.  It’s necessary, then, to bring to the light of reality, just how great and uncommon are these tasks to which we’ve been called.

To whom might one turn to shift these perceptions?  Who has the wisdom to shape the generations?  It’s Mr. Rogers, of course.

My boss gave me a book called “The World According to Mr Rogers”.  It’s saturated with deep, simple thoughts.  Among them is this:

“A high-school student wrote to ask, ‘What was the greatest event in American history?’  I can’t say.  However, I suspect that like so many ‘great’ events, it was something very simple and very quiet with little or no fanfare (such as someone forgiving someone else for a deep hurt that eventually changed the course of history).  The really important ‘great’ things are never center stage of life’s drama; they’re always ‘in the wings’.  That’s why it’s so essential for us to be mindful of the humble and the deep rather than the flashy and the superficial.”  (Rogers, Fred. The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember. New York: MJF Books, 2003, p 144)

Greatness happens every day, everywhere there’s a loving mother.  Greatness happens as children are being read to and tucked in at night.  Greatness happens during conversations around the dinner table.  Greatness happens every time a scraped knee is kissed and bandaged.  It’s happening when homework is being checked and teacher conferences are being attended.  Greatness is happening as mothers with careers inside and outside their homes, work to ensure needs are being met.  Greatness happens when mothers pray that their families will always know a loving home, and extend that love to those who don’t.

Thank God for Mothers who make greatness an everyday occurence.  Your dedication to family is sunlight to the darkest places on Earth, as your children spread the love you’ve deposited in their hearts.  To measure the impact you’ve had in the world is an impossible task.  This is why I stop and say, thank you loving mothers, for demonstrating true greatness.

Who We Are Instead

 by Chris Jones

I’m a man.  Therefore, I have no need of driving directions.  I have a destination.  I will get there.  I didn’t give any of this a second thought, as I headed for Lynchburg with my wife.  Let me qualify all of this by saying it happened about sixteen years ago.  I’ve grown since then…and purchased a GPS.  Regardless, I had been to Lynchburg before.  It’s only about three to three and a half hours from our home.  Piece of cake!  Eight hours later…yeah.  I wasn’t lost, exactly.  I just didn’t develop a concrete plan for getting there.  We were a newly and happily married couple with a goal of spending a weekend with friends.  Instead, for lack of a plan, we missed dinner that night, and talked at great length and maybe raised volumes about how I messed up.

We’re like that, aren’t we?  We always want to believe the best of our ability to make things happen, living with hopes and dreams and goals but without a concrete idea of how to make it all happen.  When we misstep and fall into trouble, we console ourselves with verses like Jeremiah 29:11.  It says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Sounds familiar, right?  I’m sure most have heard it before.  It’s generally spoken as encouragement to “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps” (whatever that means), believing there’s a purpose in all of this.  God has a plan.  The problem is, we often don’t know it.  Instead, most of us live with great hopes, but no real plan for achieving them.

What if… What if many of our problems could be avoided if we just took the time to tune in to God’s plan for our lives?  We’re men and women of God, born with divine purpose, destined to accomplish great things.  Yet, we live without much regard for His plan.  Instead, we live largely lackluster lives.  It’s one thing to apply God’s Word like ointment to our circumstances.  It’s entirely another to hear Him urging us to know that He has a plan for us, and to respond by pursuing it.  His plan is to keep us from falling, instead we continue to stumble.  His plan is to get us to His ultimate purpose, instead we follow paths of least resistance.  God has a plan.  The danger is believing there’s greater benefit in living as who we are instead.