In reading and meditating on James 1 this morning, it occurred to me how we must look to God. So often we go around, with missing or underdeveloped body parts. You know, like ears without hands and feet in the proper place, or way too small or much too big? You may be asking what I'm talking about? Well, stay with me here while I take the analogy one step further. Have you ever been to a carnival and stepped into the Fun House? The mirrors are all warped every which way and your image is out of proportion? Tall and lean becomes short and spread? Or your normally comfortably round tummy is carved into a tiny waist so small a grape would have trouble making it through?
Maybe that is how we look to God as we are traveling this road to our forever home. Like carnival caricatures of the real person we are to be. Our ears are huge. After all, we love to read the word, spending much time in Bible classes and individual meditation. But when the time comes to actually practice what it is telling us to do, we can't quite find the time or the effort. Our under-developed feet and hands aren't willing or able to do what we *know* we should. But we are happy to memorize the words and play the part. James wrote this all down and I guess you've read it, maybe more than once. We are like those who look into the mirror, see our faces, and then walk away, only to forget who we really are; all ears! We think we are speeding down the highway of life, at full-throttle, when we are actually dragging ourselves along, crippled and misshapen, unable to even do the minimum speed limit. We become speed bumps instead, blocking the normal progress of others.
So, my challenge to *me* and you if you choose to accept it, is to spend just as much time studying and contemplating the Holy scriptures, and then practicing those wonderful words of cheer, comfort, and joy.
"Take the name of Jesus with you, . . . . . " (nods to Lydia O. Baxter who wrote those beautiful words in 1870!)
