The Pastor’s Piece – July 30, 2023

The Pastor’s Piece

FCFI

July 30, 2023

A guy spots a sign outside a house that reads, “Talking Dog for Sale.” Intrigued, he walks in.

“So, what have you done with your life?” he asks the dog.

“I’ve led a very full life,” says the dog. “I lived in the Alps rescuing avalanche victims. Then I served my country in Iraq. And now, I spend my days reading at a retirement home.”

The guy is flabbergasted, he turns to the owner and asks, “Why on earth would you want to get rid of a dog like that?” The owner says, “Because he’s a liar! He never did any of that.” (Author unknown).

In a devotional by Philip De Courcy he says: As with baseball, so with life, success is achieved not by hitting a few grand slams once in a while, but by the consistent hitting of singles and doubles each and every day. A meaningful and memorable life is nothing more than the sum total of successful years, a successful year is nothing more than the sum total of successful months, a successful month is nothing more than the sum total of successful weeks, and a successful week is nothing more than the sum total of successful days. 

Too often, we tend to forget that life is won or lost between the sunrise and sunset of each new day. We need to live one day at a time because that is how God doles out life. Each day has its own troubles. We need to live one day at a time because grace is for the present not the future. God’s grace is timely and it is there when we need it (Heb. 4:16; Deut. 33:25). It is not given up front.  It is beautifully tailored and timed for the moment we are in. 

Remember there is no more important day in your life than this one, and whatever its troubles, there is grace perfectly apportioned for them. Don’t forget that life by the yard is hard, but life by the inch is a cinch. (End quote).

I always remind myself when faced with hardship and unexpected difficulty that someday we’ll look back on this and laugh. And almost always we do just that.  Isn’t that what makes memories? It’s not the day to day hum drum that we remember. It’s those moments of trauma that are forever seared into our brains.

Like the time we were visiting friends in a distant city. They picked us up at the airport and offered us the use of their car for the week (a Plymouth station wagon) – which was wonderful – until we were in a town 100 miles away and low on fuel. I pulled into the gas station and up to the pump to fill up. My wife and children ran inside to use the restroom and shop for goodies. Milk Duds and Twizzlers are our favorite traveling buddies.

Anyway, back at the pump, I discovered I couldn’t get the gas cap off. It was a locking cap (remember those?)  and my friend forgot to give me the key. He’d taken the car keys off his key ring and given them to me, but the gas cap key had slipped his mind. So there we were – hundreds of miles from home  and out of gas. My family was worried. But I reminded them that situations like this are what make memories. 

So I did what any self-reliant, independent, stubborn man would do…I got the tire iron out from behind the back seat and pried that sucker loose – much to my wife’s displeasure. Of course, I completely destroyed the gas cap in the process. I found out they make those things pretty much tamper-proof. It was a trick to pry it off with a tire iron and not ding and dent the fender of the purple Plymouth station wagon. But I managed. I explained to my wife that it would be much cheaper to buy a new gas cap than to call someone – like a locksmith – to remedy the problem. 

Of course, I was right. But what I didn’t take into account was that there were no stores for hundreds of miles in any direction. I ended up stuffing my undershirt in the open hole to the gas tank. Go ahead and picture that in your mind: Purple Plymouth station wagon full of vacationing tourists with a white t-shirt waving in the wind where the gas cap should have been. 

Ahh…the memories…without that little disruption in the trip, we would have long since forgotten we ever even went there. Yes, joy does come in the morning – and we look back and laugh.

(Kevin Cernek is Lead Pastor of Martintown Community Church in Martintown, Wisconsin).