It’s happened to all of us. Inspired by the current most awesome reality auction/picker show where they just happen to come across a box of Rolex watches amongst the broken furniture, dusty linens, old computers, and mold, you decide to go to a local auction. You get your first locker for $105. Yes, there are crutches, mismatched end tables, bad art, a bed pan and a lamp! Could it be? No, but it is! Sure enough, you rub it and voila’! A genie pops out.
He/she offers you one wish. Yes, you wish for unlimited wishes and it calls you names and threatens to leave. Quickly you rescind your greedy request and start to panic. You’ve seen enough tv and movies to know that invincibility isn’t the answer. Money isn’t quite right either, that doesn’t go well for lottery winners let alone genie award getters. Frantically you remember every movie where people get what they want and end up wishing they never got it in the first place. So what does it leave?
Then it hits you, the genie that is. At the same time you figure it out. You want to be ok. You want to know that no matter what comes your way that you will be fine. Yeah, bad things will happen but you’ll grow from them. Yeah, there will be pain but you’ll be able to bear it. You’ll grieve but you will be comforted. You will not get what you want but it ends up you’ll get what you need. When you don’t get what you want what you get will be much better. You just want to guarantee that no matter what…you’ll be ok.
So that’s what you ask for. The genie is puzzled. He blankly stares at you and asks, “Don’t you know about Jesus?”
Today I want this to be perfectly clear with you. That one wish, to be ok, is what you get with Jesus. Too many people think that He is their “magic genie.” They believe that He is at their beckon call to provide whatever they want. When they don’t get what they want they hold it against “the genie.” At the same time inwardly they are confused, “The magic genie….Jesus, was supposed to fix all of this.” Whether they end up residing in anger/bitterness or confused/dismay they simply kind of just bail out.
Jesus doesn’t make everything better, He makes every day better. Whatever comes your way, it will (eventually) be ok. Granted, many people turn to Jesus as a “get of hell free” card…which only He can offer them. While this is true and only He can pay the price for your sins, it doesn’t take long for people to want more. Take a look throughout the bible. Horrible things happened to many many (actually all) people. Jesus Himself was brutally beaten and killed in the worst way possible. Who or what could have possibly lead you to believe that you would be different?
However, time and again, He makes these horrible things that happen bearable. Fun? No. Less painful? No. Bearable? Yes. When we focus less on Him and what He is doing through us and more on what is happening to us we slide into the “woe is me” mentality.
If you have read any of my posts, you know that I am not advocating the “suck it up” solution to life’s problems. One of the greatest ways that Jesus makes every day better is the people He puts in our lives to comfort us, love us, pull us through.
So what to do with that genie and his wish? I don’t know. I’d probably just wish for him to get back in his lamp and stop freaking me out.