4.682 Options and Only One God (Frank Myer)

Good evening! My devotional tonight is penned by my friend, Frank Myer. Frank and I went to Harding University together and our folks did the same several decades previously. Frank writes a weekly devotional called Friday From Frank and he has graciously loaned me several of his excellent pieces! Please continue to pray for me in Vietnam!

Friday From Frank

4.682 Options and Only One God

Good Morning Life Travelers,

How’s the week? Anything exciting happen? Four Presidents showed up in Dallas to help George W celebrate opening the Bush Library. As he said in his speech, some people are amazed in that he even found a library, much less has founded one.

Five Presidents. Which is your favorite? Take your pick.

America may be the land of the brave and home of the free, but it is also the residence of options.

Remember “Special orders don’t upset us”?  Hint: “Hold the pickles. Hold the lettuce. Special orders don’t upset us.”  Ring a bell? Burger King.

Other chains talk about all their culinary options. Taco Bell talks about exercise. “Make a run for the border” which might be why they don’t do as well as McDonalds. Just a thought.

There are now more mutual funds then there are actual stocks on the stock market. Options everywhere. Many 401(k) plans have 40 or more choices.

Do we need to talk about TV? Remember back in the good old days where there were three channels? Now there are so many channels if a show picks up more viewers than attend a college football game, producers and sponsors jump for joy. I exaggerate, but not by much.

What’s the number one rated TV show of all time?

The final episode of M*A*S*H – over 100 million viewers.

The Top Rated Show this season?  – Big Bang Theory, around 10- 12 million viewers.

Why? Too many channels to choose from.

We like choices. We feel it’s our right to chose.

Back to food. One story I remember as a younger person. My folks had all sorts of interesting people over to the house for dinner. One of the guests was in charge of acclimating missionaries when they came back to live in the states.

He told the story of taking a family to the local grocery store. They stood in the bread aisle and began to weep. Why?  Too many choices. For years they had limited choice and now they stood in front of long shelves of bread and so many choices. This was even before multigrain. They would go into shock today. 

Cars. When Henry started with his car company, you could have any color you wanted, as long as you wanted black. How many colors are out there now? 

Warning, cultural joke coming.

It’s even hit the literary market. There’s a book out about painting cars: Fifty Shades of Grey. (For my more sensitive readers, don’t go buy that book expecting it to be about cars. It was a joke.)

We like choices, which, to a point, is okay. However, when folks start church shopping that may be a red flag. There is the rumor that church is not about getting something out of it, but you are there to worship God. I may be wrong there.

Yes, I am familiar with the argument, “How can I worship if I’m unhappy?”  Oh, my. We certainly don’t want anybody being less than happy as they deal with life, or spiritual dilemmas.

What about God?

We believe we can choose our God. How nice. Too bad it’s not true.

God, and whether He’s there or not is already a done deal.

It’s a matter of discovery not decision.

If you walk into Marble Slab looking for a particular flavor of ice cream and they don’t have it, they will make it for you. You want to mix raisins and peanuts? Help yourself.

You don’t like the way God exists? Tough noodles. (I’m being polite.)

The skills you use walking into Neiman’s and finding the perfect shirt to match your skin tone, are you a summer or winter, doesn’t work with deciding what kind of God there is.

God is either there or He is not. No matter how important you are, what you think really makes about as much impact as me trying to decide why Justin Bieber CDs still sell. They do no matter what I think.

When it comes to God we are here to discover the truth not decide it.

How do we do that?

One; realize it’s our mission to find out what’s going on with God. Read the Bible. Pray. Study. Have a little faith.

My atheist friends will say something along the lines of: “Well I am not going to believe in something I can’t prove.”  Really?  Well how can you prove God is not here? Guess what? You can’t.

Seek. Ask. Look around.

If you buy the wrong color car, so what? If you chose the wrong hair style, big deal, it will grow back.

If you make the wrong choice about if there is a God or not, you have laid everything on the line. Even if you don’t want to “play”, that is not an option. You were born. You’re playing.

Search.

Enjoy the ride,

Frank

PS – Two books you may enjoy – “America’s Four Gods”   and “I Don’t Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist”.  Google them. Amazon Them.

PPS – After you decide there is a God, the next step is finding out what is God like. That, my friend, will take at least another week or two. (Someone has an over-inflated opinion of their writing skills.) 

God bless,
Steve
Luke 18:1
www.hawleybooks.com
E-mail me at steve@hawleybooks.com