WEiRD Trades

Have you ever noticed that we live in a world that is ridicules scattered? Normal is living in a world where it is possible to live scattered all the time. Because of text messages, cell phones, voice mail, Twitter, Facebook and email, we live in a world where it is normal to be scattered. These things are totally neutral but the way they influence our life can either enhance us or totally distract us. Try to have a conversation with someone while they are staring at their iPhone checking their Facebook status. My family and I were eating out when I noticed another minister from another church in my town and his family at the table near us. When our food came as our family custom, we bowed for a quick prayer and began to eat. I noticed the other pastors family were still bowed. I told my family were are not praying long enough, come on, we got to up our game. Their food arrived, they were still bowed. I'm feeling like such the slacker at this point. Then I noticed they were not praying at all, they were all staring and touching their iPhones underneath  the table. Throughout their entire meal they did not speak to each other one word, but maybe they were texting each other.
Normal life has forced us to live in a way where no one or no one thing has our undivided attention. Normal call’s us to multitask, do three things at once, and run from place to place, activity to activity. Today a normal life is a life that is scattered not focused. Leading a scattered life leads to a life of mediocrity. When we are spread too thin nothing or no one gets the best of us. Is it possible that if we run on the hamster wheel of a normal life, that our spouse, our loved ones, our children, our friends don’t get the best of us. They don’t get our undivided attention.

Jesus offers a challenge to us in the gospel of Mark 8:34-27. Jesus asks a question that challenges our normal way of life. He asks “What if we live our whole life living normal and at the end of our life we realize we have nothing?” He says, “Or what can anyone give in a trade for their soul?” Jesus is implying that each and every day we life our life there is a trade involved. Each and every day, every minute and hour of each day there is a weird trade going on. Whenever we are doing something or not doing something we are making a trade. We are trading our life for something. It is possible that we can spend all our time and energy going after the newest, fastest, most expensive, latest, most popular, shiniest, and best but at the end of the day once we get it we realize we are no more happiness than when we began. That’s perfectly normal but normal isn’t working.
God is challenging us in order to find what we really desire in life is to make some weird trades. We if truly desire happiness, peace, and joy in our life we must be willing to make some weird trades. We must be willing to makes some weird trades. We must trade scattered for focused, trade instant gratification for peace, and trade our shame for freedom. If we have the courage to make these trades at the end of the day, we may not be normal but we may have found what we were looking for. To see how to put these weird trades into practice, join us for Part V of our WEiRD sermon series. WEiRD Trades.
Live a Weird life and take care of yourself and one another,
Peace, Love and Happiness,
Tommy