THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK
March 31, 2003
In a Turkish restaurant in Madison last week, on the back of the menu was an instruction that said something like Kahoe fal can answer your questions. Just take your coffee cup when you are finished drinking and turn it upside down on the saucer and invert. When cooled we will read your fortune.
Then a circle of very fine print with these words. When you find the truth, speak it or you will be afraid of it. All of us ask ourselves the same questions, why am I hear, where do I come from, where am I going? Kahoe fal (coffee fortune) can answer these questions.
Fortune tellers of all kinds abound in our world. We see them in the daily newspapers, in private businesses along the road, on calendars printed years in advance on the Chinese fortune cookies. I don’t know about the other types but at least the Chinese are universally positive even if often mysterious and in my experience too flattering for reality. All are answering the above questions. In many ways these things are a lot of fun if you don’t take them seriously. For we must take control of our own destiny and not let genes or devil or environment make us feel predetermined.
James 2:9f says it this way. "Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, the rich in being brought low." A key word is believer. No matter who you are, if you believe Jesus is Lord of your life, your status in the world does not matter. Jesus tells us that we matter. That I matter. That I can make a difference. I can be the person I ought to be and make the contribution to the world I ought to make. And so can we all. The lowly can be proud that they have been called and challenged because they are God’s children and the rich can be proud that they can stand beside their brothers and sisters as humble servants of the master.
So, Why am I here? To follow Jesus wherever he leads. Where did I come from? I was created in the image of God. Where am I going? That’s up to us. "To work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Phillipians 2:12-13) Glorify God in our lives and we will be with him forever. The how to glorify? Each in our own way. Method and choice are ours.
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