"MUCH" pt. 1

People will go to ridiculous lengths to get what they want from life. I found some great examples of this on MSNBC.com's "Weird News" webpage.

This first article talked about two prison guards fighting, while on the clock. The scuffle escalated so quickly that an inmate jumped in to break it up. It turns out the incident started over a bag of chips! "Inmate Separates Guards Fighting Over Food". 1.

This next, perplexing article is only one sentence, which I have quoted below:

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - Police arrested a 41-year-old man last week after he called 911 and told officers that he was not given the correct change after buying crack cocaine from a drug dealer. 2 (Was anyone else reminded of a Chapelle show skit?)

The most curious article had to be "Man Gets Probation for Mailing Cow Head to Wife's Lover" 3. A man became so upset about his wife's infidelity that he haggled for a cow's head from a butcher shop, froze it intact, and mailed it to his wife's lover. (Classy, right?)

The lengths these people went to seem, well...weird, but we "everyday people" have our own methods of coping with life's adversaties: smoking, over-drinking, over-eating, cutting, abusing over-the-counter medications, lying, lusting, over-working, over-gaming, cheating, etc. Due to our fast-paced, knowledge-based economy, we, as Americans, feel the pull to win at life. Unfortunately, in many cases, the desire pulls us too hard, too fast, and we lose our grip on who God has called us to be.

People will go to ridiculous lengths to get what they want from life: sanity, success, peace, or justice (even if it means fighting over chips, accusing a drug dealer of pety theft, or avenging a wrong with a decapitated cow head). But when I think about the things people get worked up over, I have to ask myself why? What are we really fighting for? Are the everyday battles we face potentially worth being cast in the same light as the people mentioned above? Their legacy will be immortalized in typed print; their foibles branding them; their true value masked by public impropriety. But what about us? For us our legacy could be that list, but it could also cost us our friendships, our family, and even our lives.

God has called us to something more, MUCH more.

So today, let's take an inventory. Let's look how at how we choose to cope with life's challenges, and remember: God values who you are, what you struggle with, and how you deal with your adversaties. Commit to trust Him more than the knee-jerk responses of our culture. As King Solomon once said, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6.