I was riding my bicycle the other day, just thinking about stuff. I rode my bike to work 4 out of 5 days last week, which I’m pretty proud of. Plus the weather is looking good this week so I might be able to at least match my record. Anyways, I usually get some good thinking done while I’m pedaling along. I was in a series of really deep thoughts (for me) the other day, centered around a question that I perhaps ponder the most: what would (does?) Jesus do about certain situations or think of certain things in today’s world? It sounds cheesy but it’s incredibly time consuming and confusing for me to ponder. Like what advice would he give on the economic situation or the wars we’re involved in? What parable would he bust out about McCain and Obama? Or what would be the main issues deciding his vote today? I was in the middle of worrying about what little money I have invested and what’s happening to it, and thinking that I shouldn’t store up too many treasures here, and thinking that Jesus said give to the government what is theirs and to God what is His. And I was thinking about how selfish I am with all of that. And I was riding along and saw a dime on the sidewalk. Now I probably wouldn’t have stopped normally, but I had just worked myself up into a big financial worry session, and after all, I wasn’t in a rush to be anywhere. I was just cruising around downtown. So I stopped and picked up the dime. And sparking a thought of a sermon I recently heard about stewardship, the tiny letters on the dime caught my eye: In God We Trust. Right there on our currency. They jumped out at me! At first I got mad, like why the heck is that on there? Does that even remotely represent the true nature of our country? Did they decide to put that on there just to make us feel bad? I buy beer with dimes like this! But then I started thinking that if Jesus were here and using our currency, he would probably use His dimes to occasionally buy a beer. But maybe not. Maybe he would buy a hamburger for that homeless dude right there instead. And there’s no way to know the answers. As long as I understand the question, not knowing the answer is OK. I saw a sign today too that just said, “Give more than you receive.” I thought that was pretty cool. Although I can’t say I do that, one day I hope to be able to. OK I just read this and it doesn’t make any sense, but I’m posting it anyways.
October 26, 2008
