Lauren and Weston


I cut my finger on God this morning.

I know that doesn't make sense to you, but it's true.

I was walking around the corner and down the hall, at the office this morning, when it happened. Sometimes my hands/arms are moving to the music in my head. You can't hear it, but I can.

As I was "feeling it," I banged my hand with a glancing blow into a large black, framed poster that says, "God."

I don't think I hurt God.

My finger, on the other hand (no pun intended), now has an owwy. Somebody probably needs to kiss it. I won't show it to you though or you'd think I was being vulgar.

I know two people who point with this finger. I don't get it. The pointer finger is in a different position on the hand. Those I know, who point with the incorrect finger, have nothing wrong with their pointer. They, for some reason, like to deploy the wrong finger. Unemployment should not happen in the life of this finger. It creates issues.

Sometimes it's embarrassing.

I remember when my kids were young and one of these people was showing us something on a map or a picture or something. Honestly, I don't remember the something. I just remember that afterward, my kids were like... "why was he pointing with that finger?"

I don't know how to answer that question.

I am equally unlikely to answer this question well. "Why do people hurt God?"

I know the reasons. Selfishness, pride, ego, arrogance, etc. But why do we make conscious decisions we know are going to hurt our Father in Heaven?

Most don't consider the impact of their decision on a Holy God. Most of us can't see past that moment, if we're honest.

What our society has taught us well, is how to answer the question, "what makes me feel good?"

Many of us spend our lives pursuing the answer, regardless of the temporary nature of the gratification. If we can get our needs met immediately, we are unlikely to defer pleasure.

When you are looking at the equation of life, and see that Jesus is the prize, it creates a desire to run the race well.

That scenario however, seems to imply that we need to 'earn' the prize. We don't.

The "prize" is ours for the asking.

We are better at understanding 'earning.'

We live in a world that is not based on grace. 'Grace' is getting what you don't deserve. If we got what we deserved, that would be just. Sometimes in life, justice happens when we fail. That reinforces the need to do well, or work hard.

Getting the prize because you asked for it, seems cheap and easy. We believe we need to work to get good things.

What we don't think about, is the cost of the prize... or in this case, the cost to the prize.

We hurt God when we rejected Him, had His Son whipped, made Him drag heavy timber, and drove spikes into His body to pin Him in place. We saw that He bled unto death.

We'd like to believe that if it happened today, we'd stand firm for Him... the outcome would be different. Yet, most of us cannot stand for Him in our offices or among our groups of friends. I'm afraid we'd enable the soldier to thrust the spear into His side, all over again.

So, we get the prize and we don't deserve Him. He bled so we could walk. We might as well make Him famous (for the right reasons) while we walk.

Next time there's a song in your heart, if your hands happen to flail and you bleed because you hit God and got cut; just remember, He bled first... and He spilled it all.


dad