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Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life
by Tom Kelley
Have you ever been reemed out for going the right way? No, seriously! Have you ever been going the right way and had someone just absolutlely take you to task for doing so? The other evening my wife and I were going to our local WalMart. As we entered the parking area we were ready to go down the proper lane of parking when, lo and behold, an older woman was coming the wrong way against the traffice arrow for the parking lane. As I pulled to the side to allow her to get out of the way I noticed that she was shouting things at me through her closed window. I can only imagine if the words fit her demeanor just what she was saying. But I was going the right way!
It happens. Someone runs a red light and almost hits you and you're the one to blame for being in the way. The funny thing is, that's the way it has been since the beginning of time. Cain slew Abel because Abel was going the right way (Genesis 4:8) and so it began. Wars have been fought, skirmishes contested, families divided; all because someone was going the right way and someone else got mad. But why? Why does it happen so often and with such cataclysmic results? Because we have forgotten that God has forgiven us at our very best.
Did you catch that? Not at our very worst, but at our very best. The best we could do was so far short of what God needed out of us that it was junk. Still we see our best as pretty good and impressive, if we do say so ourselves...and we usually do. We are proud of what we do. Just like that woman that evening who was proud that she was going the wrong way out of the parking lot but was brave enough to do it in spite of knowing it was wrong. That's the rub. We do the wrong in spite of knowing it is wrong, just so we can be ourselves. Ourselves, our very best, is just exactly what Jesus died for.
So which is the right way? We all know it, but we just don't like to say it. The way that Jesus has laid out is the right way. John 14:6 - "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me." Great!!! But what does that actually mean. It means that whatever Jesus says touches salvation is what is to be the way. The way is the truth of the gospel message. The way is the life of man lived in the light of God. The way is there to be seen if we but open our eyes to see it. That is where we struggle. We like the way we're going and it looks good to us.
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoguhts higher than your thoughts." Isaiah 55:8,9 It is time for a little NBA hang time. Time for some elevation. Time to begin living above the rim instead of in the parking lanes of life. God longs to elevate us through His Son to sit in the heavenlies (Ephesians 1). Time to swallow hard and say, "God, you lead the way, even though I thought I was going the right way.
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...He was the Minister of the Minorsville Christian Church located near Stamping Ground, KY.
...Becky and Tom have three children; John, single and in worship ministry in Nicholasville, Kentucky; Sean, married (Jennifer, elementary school teacher) with twins (Grace and Patrick, b.d. 10/31/04) and regional director of Papa John's Pizza in Central KY; Kara, married (Vince Taylor, prison guard) and working with Hospice East in Winchester, KY.
...Tom went to be with the Lord on November 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer. If you have been touched by Tom's writings please send an email to Tom's son at jkelley@catalystchristian.net
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