Cure or Call

". . . I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." - Jesus (Mark 2:17b)

Dear Friends in Christ -

This past Wednesday morning, as I was typing my blog post during the huge snow-storm, it was snowing on my fingers, INSIDE my house. The snow was coming in over my desk through a crack between the window and the frame that's been developing as this 170-year-old house shifts bit by bit, season after season.

Today, as I was covering the window with double-sided tape and plastic sheeting and tightening the plastic with my 1850 watt hair dryer (done in a flash!), I was thinking about all the other frayed edges of my life. Messes not cleaned up, things left undone. Author Kris Carr's words from the morning newspaper echoed in my head, "Everyone has an under-the-gun feeling . . . maybe they are overweight, depressed, they hate their job, or their cholesterol is too high . . . they all have a piece of the puzzle to tweak." Yep. That sounds about right.

But the remedy Carr is currently touting - the "Crazy Sexy Life Diet" - didn't seem like quite the answer. While her green-stuff diet certainly seems capable of helping me shed that extra ten pounds, it certainly wouldn't help with my other problems - getting the bills paid or getting the kids to do their chores or . . . or . . . or . . . I'm looking for more.

What Carr has to offer is a cure - a remedy for a specific problem. What Jesus offers his disciples is a CALL - a way of life. Following Jesus goes beyond simple problem solving. His call is an invitation to move with Him along the path where truth and beauty are all tangled up together, the path toward heaven. Jesus didn't spend much time giving his disciples diet and exercise tips. That's probably because He figured those things would fall into place for His disciples if they were putting first things first. It's not that good habits won't help. It's just that tweaking the puzzle pieces - sealing up the cracks, losing the weight - doesn't add up to the same thing as focusing on the one most important thing. We 'get out from under-the-gun' by knowing our purpose and living it, by answering Jesus' call.

Faithfully,
Janet+