POP QUIZ

If you haven’t been a student for many decades, the words “pop quiz” may cause you to hyperventilate. If so, I’m sorry. But not really. Now, take the bubble gum out of your mouth, sit up straight, and don’t cheat. Here we go.

A friend calls to tell you that she’s in the neighborhood and is going to drop by in about 10 minutes, and she’s going to take you to the world’s best combination amusement park and shopping mall and 10-star restaurant, and you need to be dressed and ready to leave. Do you --

A. Panic-stricken, race around the house at warp speed picking up flotsam, hurling things in closets and under rugs, wiping up spills, hoping she won’t notice and tell you what a slob you are, and you can’t find anything to wear, and the whole time you’re hoping she’ll hit a pothole and be indefinitely delayed;

OR

B. Do you lounge in your cushy recliner with a glass of raspberry tea, relaxed and confident in your organized home, wearing just the right all-purpose wrinkle-free stain-free outfit and say, “come on over! Can’t wait to see you!”

Clearly, analogies go just so far. And I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. Nowadays, just as in the olden days, people ask, “where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). Unbelievers clearly think that Christ’s return for His Church is a bunch of “hooie.” But sadly, even many believers have difficulty realizing that Christ really meant it when He said He was coming back to take us with Him (John 14:3).  He’s certainly not going to shoot off a text to us, saying, “hey, heads-up, I’ll be down there in 10 minutes.” But if He DID, would you --

A. Be embarrassed at His coming, scurrying around, trying to clean up spiritual messes and flotsam (1 John 2:28-29)?

OR

B. Be relaxed, look up with great expectation, and say, “come, Lord Jesus," because you're oh-so ready for Him. You don’t have to run around wiping up spiritual spills, trying to hide spiritual unconfessed flotsam, thinking He won’t notice, because you, in obedience, have been continually abiding in Him.

My precious Lord Jesus, I don’t know when You’re coming, but You have graciously already told me the “signs” (Matthew 24). I believe Your promise that You are preparing a place for me. And it will be so much better than any park/mall/restaurant combo, because You will raise me to be imperishable (1 Corinthians 15:50-54), and so I will always be with You (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). By Your words, I am encouraged and comforted.

TOO MANY CHOICES

In recent years, my shopping for food and basic necessities has become quite simple.  Three stores on my own boulevard supply most of our needs.  I can be in and out in an hour, and that’s it for the whole week.  I have ceased feeling the mega-food temptations from most other stores.  I’m not sure what that says about me.  I choose to reject the notion of laziness and lack of imagination.  I choose to think that I’ve become an expert choosy shopper in siphoning out all the crud and bringing home the good stuff, at a reasonable price, like a Proverbs 31 wife oughtta do.

Speaking of choosing -- in recent weeks, while helping out my folks, I’ve reintroduced myself to a couple of super-stores.  I’ve learned that hundreds of products exist from which to choose any single item.  Want a bottle of shampoo for oily hair?  One can spend 20 minutes going through 10 shelves of shampoos that cater to every hair problem imaginable.  T.V. dinners?  Endless shelves of foody boxes behind fog-ridden doors, all of which are similar, yet different, and good luck finding the ones that have a coupon reduction.  Ice cream?  I do not lie, I get brain freeze just walking in the door and seeing, not just 31 mundane flavors, but probably 231 delectable flavors available, stacked on at least 231 shelves.

As I stand dumbstruck in the aisle, I’ve concluded that having an overabundance of choices may not always be a good thing.

Similar to experiencing brain-freeze trying to choose food, it’s possible that one can get “soul-freeze” trying to choose from amongst the many “gods” available in the world.  I well remember decades ago, trying out all the other tasty “religions” available in this world of mega-choices and wound up making an indigestible smorgasbord for myself.  Only after I was saved did I understand why Joshua warned the Israelites to fear and serve God, to make up their minds once and for all, “choose for yourselves today whom you will serve …” – all the other gods or The God (Joshua 24:15).  Thankfully, I’ve come to realize the “simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ” alone (2 Corinthians 11:3-4), not anybody or anything else.

I’ve also seen that choosing is a really good thing, when it’s God Who is doing it.  As I’ve spent time in the Word, I see that God did much choosing.  He routinely chose individual people out of hordes of other people for His own.  He chose one city that He loved, He chose specific days for specific feasts, etc.  He’s a very choosy God.  Jesus Himself chose The Twelve apostles out of many, many other disciples.  He also warned that, in the future, “many will come in My name” claiming to be Him, and not to go after them (Luke 21:8).  He well understands our tendencies to flail around indecisively and make bad choices.

My Father God, thank You for showing me that, surprisingly, I didn’t really choose You at all.  You loved me before I loved You.  You chose to save me (Ephesians 1:4) from eternity past.  How humbling, that it’s really not about me choosing You after intelligent deliberation.  It’s about You fulfilling Your eternal purpose, and I get to be included in that.  And how very grateful I am that You chose to save old wretched me.