By Jim Denison
Authorities in Gulfport, Miss., recently subdued a nearly-13-foot-long weighing 800 pounds. They used a forklift to get the beast out of the water, but first they duct-taped its massive jaws shut. (Who was the first person to try that?) The reporter covering the drama explained: “While gators exert enormous pressure clamping down, it takes very little pressure to keep those giant jaws shut.” If only that were true for the rest of us.
To wit: Newsweek said that Gordon Brown might still be Britain’s prime minister if it weren’t for the fact that he is “thin-skinned, tantrumprone, and woefully short on the charisma that endeared the public to Tony Blair.” His angry description of a skeptical voter as a “bigoted woman,” caught on a live microphone during the last days of campaigning, was probably his final undoing.
Consider a third item in the news: the federal government spends nine cents to create a nickel and almost two cents to manufacture a penny. Now we know why we’re in debt. In response, President Obama wants to make money from cheaper materials. Such a strategy could conserve more than $100 million a year, according to the Treasury Department.
A simple proposition? Not really. Vending machines and coin-counting devices recognize the current coins, so changes could force expensive retooling. And some worry that cheaper coins could lead to a wave of counterfeiting.
Meanwhile, critics of the penny say this is a good time to do away with the tiny currency altogether. Not so fast, replies Americans for Common Cents. The group lobbies on behalf of the penny (winning my vote for the Strangest Way to Spend Time Award), arguing that without it, nefarious merchants would round prices for items up to the nearest nickel.
And what about the nickel in nickels? It turns out to be the most allergy-producing metal on the planet, producing in its allergic victims an itchy, poison-ivy-type rash lasting up to a month. There’s your devotional image for the week.
In a day when the president’s new Supreme Court nominee is making headlines, the European Union is spending $955 billion to counter the Greek credit crisis, and the oil spill in the Gulf continues to grow, why are these dissimilar news reports worth our attention? Consider their synergy as a cultural parable.
God’s word promises, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (II Cor. 5:17). If you have asked Jesus to be your Lord, your body is now the residence of the Spirit of God (I Cor. 3:16). Unlike the subjects of our news reports, you cannot be melted down, voted out of office or forklifted from your home. You have already won the election (Eph. 1:3-10) which guarantees your eternal residence in paradise (John 14:1-3).
But the rest of us cannot detect on the outside the change you’ve experienced on the inside. You may not be a copper penny any longer, but the copper that still covers your exterior is all we can see. We appraise your value as though you were a coin or political leader or animal in the wild — by your value to us. We celebrate your capacities only so long as they serve our needs.
Don’t make our mistake. You are not a means to our end. You are loved passionately and personally by the King of the universe. You may have a few nicks and scratches on your surface, but one day you’ll trade in your copper coating for an “imperishable,” “spiritual” body which will be “raised in glory” (I Cor. 15:42-44).
Now your Father wants to conform you to the likeness of his Son (Rom. 8:29). However, his transformation requires your cooperation. His Spirit will not tape your jaws shut. Nor will he manifest his fruit in your character (Gal. 5:22-23) without your permission. The Holy Spirit will make you only as godly as you choose to be.
Oswald Chambers reminds us that “we are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do.” If you were to be more like Jesus tomorrow, what would need to change in your life today?