On Your Best Day
The phone rang, and the lady of the house answered. It was a salesman from a mortgage refinance company. “Do you have a second mortgage on your home?” “No,” she replied. “Would you like to consolidate all of your debts?” “I don’t have any,” she replied. “How about freeing up some cash for home improvements?” “I don’t need any. I just recently had some done and paid cash,” she parried. There was a brief silence, and he asked, “Are you looking for aHere’s a mind-popping story I found on the internet with two perspectives – one coming from Venus (the feminine perspective) and the other from Mars (the masculine perspective). The story is called The Wife’s Diary and The Husband’s Diary.
The Wife’s Diary. “Tonight, I thought my husband was acting weird. We had made plans to meet at a nice restaurant for dinner. I was shopping with my friends all day, so I thought he was upset that I was a bit late, but he didn’t comment. Our conversation wasn’t flowing, so I suggested we go somewhere quiet to talk. He agreed, but he didn’t say much.
I asked him what was wrong; He said, ‘Nothing.’ I asked him if it was my fault that he was upset. He said he wasn’t upset, that it had nothing to do with me, and not to worry about it. On the way home, I told him that I loved him. He smiled slightly and kept driving. I can’t explain his behavior. I don’t know why he didn’t say, ‘I love you, too.’
When we got home, I felt I had lost him completely, as if he wanted nothing to do with me anymore. He just sat there quietly and watched television. He continued to seem distant and absent. Finally, with silence, I decided to go to bed. About fifteen minutes later, he came to bed. But I still felt he was distracted, and his thoughts were elsewhere. Finally, he fell asleep; I cried. I don’t know what to do. I’m almost sure that his thoughts are with someone else. My life is a disaster.”
The Husband’s Diary. “A two-foot putt! Who the ‘!*#%’ misses a two-foot putt?” I’ve been there, done that, got the T-shirt.
Years ago, my wife Becky and I had a similar Venus/Mars story to the wife and husband story. At that time, we were selling our home and our home was in Escrow. Becky was worried because we hadn’t found a new home. Here is what she posted on her Facebook page about how she was feeling.
“Well, as of last night, we have a contract on our house. We haven’t found a house to move to yet, so I’m in bed with my mind racing, thinking, ‘OK, our daughter said we could stay with them, or we could stay with Ed’s Dad, but Ed needs the internet for his work. And where will we put all our furniture, belongings, and the rest of our stuff? I must pack. Where am I going to find the time and energy?’ So I couldn’t fall asleep. I got up, did some stuff, and finally fell asleep sometime after 2:00 AM.
Today Ed and I were sitting in the family room, and Ed was strangely quiet, so I assumed he was thinking about our move. So I said, ‘Whatcha thinkin?’ He says, “I CAN’T BELIEVE JEFF GORDON BLEW THAT NASCAR RACE!” So I replied, ‘OH MY GOSH, YOU ARE SUCH A GUY!’” She got thirty-seven likes and twenty comments in a few hours (mostly from citizens of Venus).
The Venus/Mars phenomenon occurs with God and human beings too. But it’s not Venus and Mars. It’s Heaven and Earth.
Our Diary. “God, my world’s falling apart, things are terrible, everything is out of control, I can’t cope, and there’s no hope. Things will never change. Someone else got my promotion, and I won’t recover from this. I’m falling apart, the bill collectors are coming, my kids are out of control,” and all the other stuff we feel, think, and say in times of crisis and ambiguity.
God’s Diary. “Yes, I understand the way you feel. This is God! I will be handling all your problems today. I will not need your help. So, have a good day.” In a Venus/Mars sense, God is such a guy!
My pastor friend, John Lynch, has a great quote from his new On My Best Day series, which captures heaven’s perspective of life. “On my best day – I’m trusting God’s perfect love, unique intention, endless forgiveness, and mistake-free care, giving me peace, purpose, joy, and safety on even my toughest days.’ That couldn’t be said better or more accurately. That’s trust in action. But, of course, the best way to have your best day is this perspective, ‘I don’t know what the future holds, but I do know who holds the future.’
By the way, I never mentioned how Becky’s and my home dilemma turned out. So, here we were, our home in Escrow, with no place to go without heaps of logistics and work. A few days later, I’m looking at houses on the internet, discovering a home for sale. I say to Becky, “Hey, this house looks OK. Let’s check it out.” We go to the house, along with twenty other people looking at it, and it’s perfect for us. What happened then? The outcome was the same day our home for sale closed Escrow, we closed Escrow on our new home and moved in. It was seamless. Becky skipped as a calf let out of a stall.
Please don’t think that I’m suggesting beautiful Becky looks like a calf. It’s a Biblical concept. (I suppose a calf sounds better than a cow).
Now, picture me like Snoopy in Peanuts, lying on top of his doghouse on my best day saying to myself, “Oh, the things one must do when writing articles in today’s world.” husband?”
In this brief conversation on the phone, the lady sent a message loud and clear. It was apparent to the salesman that this lady has values that, in many ways, define her. Her actions are consistent with her words. She walked the walk, not just talked the talk. The messenger and her message are compatible.
Those of you who are Christians in my reading audience, let me ask you a question. What kind of message are you sending to that world out there? The word Christian comes from Acts 11:26 in the Scriptures. “And it came about that they met with the church for an entire year and taught considerable numbers, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” The community named them using the word “Christians.” Why? Because the messengers and the message they were sending were consistent. I think Antioch had a branding gift.
The “Christians” in Antioch walked like Christ, talked like Christ, had integrity like Christ, ministered like Christ, were servant leaders like Christ, loved like Christ, and had wisdom like Christ; in short, they lived Christ. Christ in them came out of them. Who they were, became what they do. The city acknowledged the messengers and their message, naming them Christians or “little Christs.” The Christians of that day were earthly definers of Christ in the same way Christ represented God. They defined Christ by actions, not the religious rhetoric prevalent in their day and today.
God wants more than belief and worship in church. God wants faith and love in action outside of the church. God desires to connect the messenger and message with the audience through Christianity’s real and tangible practices. After all, most people know who you are and what you do by what they see, not what they hear. Remember, Christians, we are carriers and couriers of Christ. We are filled with Christ so we can spill Christ on others. We are God’s representatives “on earth as it is in heaven.” We give God a face in the community.
So, what does mature Christianity look, sound, and feel like? Let me share with you readers a human sample of Christ’s example via a true story published in The Prairie Observer. Catch the concept here.
When Wycliffe bible translator Doug Meland and his wife moved into a village of Brazil’s Fulnio Indians, he was called “the white man.” The term was not complimentary since other white men had exploited them of their lands.
But after the Melands learned the Fulnio language and began to help the people with medicine and, in other ways, they started calling Doug “the respectable white man.” Then, when the Melands began adapting to the people’s customs, the Fulnio people gave them greater acceptance and spoke of Doug as “the white Indian.”
Then one day, as Doug was washing the dirty, blood-caked foot of an injured Fulnio boy, he overheard a bystander say to another: “Whoever heard of a white man washing an Indian’s foot before? Certainly, this man is from God!” From that day on, whenever Doug would go into an Indian home, it was announced, “Here comes the man God sent us.”
Doug, God’s messenger, broadcasted a loud and clear message – Jesus, God’s love in action. Doug represented, then presented Christ. He was filled to be spilled for others. His actions were consistent with his words. Just like those Christians in Antioch, both who Doug was and what Doug did, were compelling to the people God sent him to serve.
No matter what part of society you participate in or where you are spiritually, here’s your takeaway. Christianity can be described in three short sentences. Royalty is your identity. Servanthood is your assignment. Intimacy with God is your source.
What do I mean by royalty? I’m not talking about royalty in the entitled or exalted sense. I’m talking about your identity. Identity is who you are. You are part of God’s family. You live from significance, not for significance. You live from acceptance, not for acceptance. You live from being loved, not for being loved. By receiving Christ into your heart, you have completed what God started for you.
What do I mean by servanthood? Servanthood is about purpose. As Christians, we serve first and reign later. If you want to be great in God’s kingdom, learn to be the servant of all in the church and the world. God saved Christians for the world, not just from the world. Remember, to the world, you might be one person, but to one person, you might be the world.
What do I mean by source? First, realize that it’s impossible to be a Christian or do Christian service by human power. It’s takes God’s power. God puts into us what God wants out of us. The Spirit of Christ creates messengers with a message. Why? So, God can make connect his message with the audience which is the whole world.
What’s God’s message? The best the world can offer is rehabilitation. What people need is transformation through a new life in Christ.