BOOM BOOM BOOM... RUMBLE RUMBLE BOOM! No music, no singing, just BOOOOOOM!
My first thought was not a nice one I assure you. You see, I was getting ready to order my much anticipated lunch and could not wait till they ask the question..."Do you want fries with that?"However, I just knew that when I moved my car up to place my order that Mickey D's would not be able to hear me at all and I would not be able to hear them! This was serious!
I thought "How rude can a person be? All he wants is for someone to look at him and to think that he is cool. Why won't he just turn that stupid thing down and yell out his window..."Hey...will you just look at me? I'm dying for attention here!" Had he done that I would have respected him much more and at least it would have made a little more sense.
After I cooled down a bit I thought about that incident and how I personally would never need to get attention by doing something so idiotic, but then I began to think of the ways we all try to get attention. It also came to me that sometimes we really don't even recognize how we scream for people to look at us! Of course there is always the obvious stuff like body piercings, nose rings and other body art, tattoos, pink or purple hair, and black clothes with chains and so forth. Some of us may look at those people and say to ourselves how silly that is to mess up your body that way. We think...do you really need attention that bad? Of course most people that do those sort of things pride themselves on being individualist. They supposedly chart their own course and do not follow the crowd, but of course everybody knows that they do follow a crowd...its just a different one than we may follow! Everyone falls victim to some sort of peer pressure and the desire to be seen as special or unique!
But ya know what? The folks that I run around with seem to have their own ways of yelling out the same question..."Hey...will you just look at me? I want to be important here!" Not that it's all bad; I want to simply make a point that even though we are different, we are all basically the same.
What..you don't think so? You say that you're a mature adult that doesn't need attention? Maybe you're an extreme liberal or very conservative, or a successful business man or woman, maybe you're a professional, an intellectual that is very grounded and secure! Well whoopie dooooo for me and you! Sorry, but teacher's, preachers, entertainers, politicians, Presidents, Dictators, millionaires, billionaires, and on down to the average Joe on the street...we all want to be noticed and we do things to draw attention to ourselves! Admittedly it kind of busted my bubble when I began to think of all the ways that I, and the crowd I run with look for attention. To be honest my friend, the ways we seek attention are almost limitless!
Lets see....uuum... why do we choose the style of new clothes we buy? Maybe because we think we will look good in them and people will notice us...ya think? (As Sarah Palin would say...."You Betcha!"
) Why do we choose that certain new tie, or shoes, or fancy cars, or big houses, or a particular brand of new furniture? Why do we spend so much money on landscaping our lawns? Why do we need to purchase those pure breed or so called"full blooded" dogs and cats (Personally I've always said that all of my dogs have been "full blooded". Just think about it; If you prick the top of their heads with a needle or pin and they bleed from the top of their noggins...then they must be full of blood or "full blooded!" :-) (okay sorry about that one)A little further thinking...Why do you get your hair, nails, and toes done? Why do you try not to dress just like others at your work? Do you feel the need to match up to people in your church in dress and attitude so people will look at you and say....WOW he's a Christian, I can tell because he dresses and looks just like us? Face it, we all think about how we are going to be perceived or looked at in almost every daily situation that we face. Go ahead now...admit it! By the way we groom ourselves, dress, drive, live, and act we are always wanting people to look at, or notice us just like the guy wanted noticed in the Chevy with the loud Boom Box (Except hopefully we want noticed in a positive way. Besides, he will most likely be deaf one day). We all want to make an impression...and for most of us we hope it's a good one! Basically we too are saying, "Hey...will you look at me? I'm important."
We all know that children do things for attention and what do they normally say before they attempt a terrific feat of some kind? They say "Hey... Look at me!" They almost always yell it out until somebody stops and watches them don't they? The picture here is of my grandson Josh jumping off of a hay bale with his sister Hannah watching from behind. It is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. He wanted me to look at him and to take his picture too, so I did. His sister tried a few minutes later, but unfortunately she did not fair so well...she fell like a rock! Actually, she hit the ground faster than I could take the picture! Ouch! You know...I guess in a way I do this blog and do my photography at least in part so people will read and look and say...Man that's good stuff! I can only hope, but you don't need to be too honest about that. I'm sensitive you know! So you see, when you look deep inside it looks like we are all stuck in the cycle of "MeVille" to various degrees.Jesus said "If I (Jesus) be lifted up I'll draw all men to me." The Bible also says (paraphrased by me here) that "If you want to lose your life then try to save it, but...if you want to save your life then lose it for his sake."
Got Religion? Religion is when we do everything possible humanly speaking to get God's attention. Basically through what we do we are kind-of trying to save our own eternal lives. "Hey God...just look at me! Look what I'm doing for you. Am I a righteous person or what? I do so much more for you than those other so called Christians so I know you are looking at me. Right? Now I can ask and get whatever I want from you God correct?" It's me working as hard as I can while God is watching from above. He is seeing if I can do more right than wrong... Yep that's full blown religion!
On the other hand Christian's seemingly look like to the world that they lose control of their lives and desires when they lift Jesus up. They seem to say..."Please don't look at me, but Wow, Look at you Jesus. Look at what you did for me. Look at how you have a plan for my life. Look at how you promised that nothing would be able to separate me from your love. Look at how you have forgiven a sinner like me. It's all about you and I will praise you forever because of what you have done." Those that give their lives away for His sake end up finding lives of purpose and hope. That's not religion, that's a real relationship with your creator.
One day in heaven we will look back at all the silly striving, hard work, and vain efforts that we employed religiously just to get God's attention. We will most likely realize that we really did not fathom his endless love and sacrifice for us. Of course we should work to make this world a better place and to spread the good news of the Gospel around the world, but I believe that in Heaven we will then realize just how ineffective it was for us to give the old extreme effort to gain his acceptance. That is given through His grace alone. For those of us that did put extra effort in works to get His approval, maybe we will be able to laugh at the thought of our arrogance to think that our tiny efforts got us anywhere.
God has always loved and looked at us. We don't need to turn flips and do special tricks for him, or turn up our spiritual Boom Boxes to gain his approval! The true Christian will put his faith and trust in Jesus and not in his or her own works. You will beat yourself to almost to death just trying to be good enough to gain is acceptance. You will find that kind of self-works theology in every other religion except Christianity. So if you're really a child of the king by His finished work and not yours, then maybe you should stop trying so hard to do what has already been done for you by Jesus. If you are a real Christian that owes it all and gives all praise to Him for your salvation, then you are under his sacrificial blood. So why don't you relax and smile a little... you uptight knuckleheads.. he's got you covered!
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