Hide and Seek

We’ve all enjoyed a game of hide and seek at one time or another.

How long since you’ve played? I still find it great fun.

It’s such a laugh to play with small children, who think that if they can’t see you, then you can’t see them. As long as their face is hidden, even if just behind a pair of tiny hands, they think that they can’t be discovered. Usually they’re giggling at the same time!

As children get older, they understand a little better the concept of hiding, and due to their small frame are able to hide away in some pretty hard to discover places. It’s amazing though that when they find a great hiding spot, often they’ll return to that exact same spot, time after time, making them easy to discover.

Then over time they become really good, puzzling even the cleverest adult. But the longer it takes for them to be found, the more they begin to worry that they might never be found, and I’ve often had my kids reveal themselves because they thought I had stopped looking for them and they might have been stuck there forever.

As an adult I come up with some great hiding spots, only to discover that my belly is sticking out, or my feet, or my hair, and I’m easily detected. Or that cupboard I used to be able to fit in has somehow shrunk, and the door is left ajar – a tell-tale sign that I’m in there.

Did you know that hide and seek is one of the earliest activities of man recorded in the Bible?

Early on in Genesis we have Adam and Eve, who have broken the rules by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, and, knowing they’ve done the wrong thing, they try to hide from God among the trees in the Garden of Eden. God calls out “where are you?” and like little kids inexperienced at the hide and seek game, Adam calls back – “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”

How amusing that they thought they could hide from God.

How sad that ever since, people have felt they have been able to hide their ‘sinful’ behaviors.

The writer of Psalm 139 knew there was no hiding from an all-seeing, all-knowing God, declaring ‘Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit? To be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, you’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, you’d find me in a minute – you’re already there waiting!’

You can’t play hide and seek with God. God always finds you!

But the great news is that God always forgives you.

Better to bring it all out in the open, to confess our failings, and to receive the wonderful gift of divine forgiveness. Don’t be a hider. Be a seeker.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

The BBQ saga

We need to introduce a compulsory new subject into our school system. Urgently!

We need to teach ‘Assembly’ – the art of putting things together that you have bought that come as flat-packs - all in parts and pieces in a box.

Everything I buy seems to come in a box, full of screws and nuts and bolts and washers…

My most recent purchase was a BBQ – and it came in a box! So I had to get the screwdrivers, spanners, hammers – and then open up that little book entitled ‘assembly instructions’.

I read them carefully. I looked at the pictures. I counted out all my parts and pieces. I sorted everything out, took a deep breath, and began.

Things seemed to be going well as I continually referred back to the pictures, back to the instructions – until I realized I had the legs on around the wrong way!. So everything had to be undone and redone.

As I got to the end of one stage I realised I had a piece left over. I could see where it was supposed to go but I couldn’t get it to fit. Fortunately a friend was visiting, and I showed him the offending, ill-fitting piece. He was able to quickly identify that it was supposed to go on the inside, not on the outside where I was trying to put it.

While I was thanking him profusely, he quietly pointed out that the legs were on the wrong ends. Aagghh. How could I have got things so wrong? I had the instructions, I had the diagrams. I thought I was following them correctly.

With this correction of a friend, I was able to get things right, get it all connected and tightened, and was able to enjoy the fruits of my labour at dinnertime. And I was only short 2 nuts, which I must have put somewhere they weren’t supposed to be. Almost perfect.

Christians have the Bible, we have the teachings and the example of Jesus, but sometimes, no matter how carefully we think we’re reading the instructions, we get the application wrong. We misinterpret something, or misunderstand how it’s supposed to be applied.

As I came across the problems with my BBQ construction, I was heard to say “stupid BBQ” “these instructions are wrong” “they haven’t made the BBQ properly!” when all along it was the incorrect following of the instructions, and my handling of the pieces that was wrong.

Unfortunately, many outside the Christian faith see the mistakes that Christians make and either say, “stupid religion” “the Bible is wrong” or “the whole God thing makes no sense”.

And those who call themselves Christian can easily get discouraged by the mistakes and misunderstandings and misbehavior of themselves and/or their fellow believers.

I encourage you Christians to keep at it, keep referring to the instructions, listen to the counsel of a friend, and don’t be afraid to undo and start over again in matters of following Jesus.

I encourage those outside the Christian faith not to blame God or the Bible or religion in general for the awful mistakes and misapplication that followers sometimes make. They’re just learning and trying to put things together in the way that the manufacturer (God) intended.

And to the Minister for Education, please teach my kids how to assemble flat-packs, so I don’t have to endure another Saturday afternoon like the BBQ assembly day again.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington

WWJD?

I guess you’ve seen or heard of the acronym WWJD either on bracelets or stickers or badges. For some it’s just a fashion statement, for others it’s a constant reminder of the message – What Would Jesus Do?

I’m led to believe that it originated from an 1897 novel by Charles Sheldon about a small-town pastor who encourages his congregation to live a year based on that question. In each situation to consider what Jesus would do, and act accordingly. It was picked up in the late 20^th century and became a Christian marketing sensation.

Thomas a Kempis was a 15^th century monk who hundreds of years earlier wrote a piece with a similar sentiment entitled The Imitation of Christ, exhorting people to do just the same thing – to imitate Jesus in all the situations of life.

Author Ed Dobson recently took things a little further. He determined to live for an entire year exactly how Jesus would have lived. He ate kosher, grew his beard, observed Shabbat and all the Jewish feasts and festivals. In addition, he set a goal to read a Gospel a day (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), so that within 12 months he would have read (or listened to, as the reading became tedious) each Gospel story over 90 times. So keen was he to discover not just how Jesus lived, but what he taught and modeled, and to live that out as best he could.

He found it very difficult. The lifestyle to some degree, but to live out the teachings he found even tougher.

I find it difficult too.

To love your enemies, to give to anyone who asks, to turn the other cheek. Much easier said than done.

I’m comforted somewhat by the fact that those who were with Jesus as he was teaching these things, and modeling them, even they found it difficult. And they had a living, breathing example right in front of them. They were with Jesus himself!

So is it just too hard? Should we forget trying to imitate Jesus and live out his teachings?

I have found that it requires me to start afresh each day, with a fresh resolve, to do the best I can to live according to the teachings and example of Jesus. He said we were to take up our cross daily, and to follow him. For me this means not living by my own human instincts and desires, but living by my God instincts. And persisting on a daily basis in spite of my failings.

And when I do this, when I give living like Jesus my best shot, I find my life so much more fulfilling, so much more satisfying, so much more joyous and rewarding.

I believe that Jesus provides the absolute best blueprint for living on Earth. Why not read the Gospels through a few times and see if you agree?

Then may we all do our best, each and every day, to live as imitators of Jesus.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington