Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Aug 8, 2007 5:09:06 GMT -5
UNTANGLING LIFE'S KNOTS
by Max Lucado
It’s your best friend’s wedding. “I’ll take care of the
reception,” you’d volunteered. You planned the best party possible. You
hired the band, rented the hall, catered the meal, decorated the room,
and asked your Aunt Bertha to bake the cake.
Now the band is playing and the guests are milling, but Aunt Bertha is
nowhere to be seen. Everything is here but the cake. You sneak over to
the pay phone and dial her number. She’s been taking a nap. She
thought the wedding was next week.
Oh boy! Now what do you do? Talk about a problem! Everything is here
but the cake …
Sound familiar?
It might. It’s exactly the dilemma Jesus’ mother, Mary, was facing.
Back then, wine was to a wedding what cake is to a wedding today.
What Mary faced was a social problem. No need to call 911, but no way
to sweep the embarrassment under the rug, either.
When you think about it, most of the problems we face are of the same
caliber. We’re late for a meeting. We leave something at the office. A
coworker forgets a report. Mail gets lost. Traffic gets snarled. The
waves rocking our lives are not life threatening yet. But they can be. A
poor response to a simple problem can light a fuse.
For that reason you might want to note how Mary reacted. Her solution
poses a practical plan for untangling life’s knots. “They have no
more wine,” she told Jesus (John 2:3). That’s it. That’s all she
said. She didn’t go ballistic. She simply assessed the problem and gave
it to Christ.
It’s so easy to focus on everything but the solution. Mary didn’t
do that. She simply looked at the knot, assessed it, and took it to the
right person. “I’ve got one here I can’t untie, Jesus.”
“When all the wine was gone Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have
no more wine’” (John 2:3).
Please note, she took the problem to Jesus before she took it to anyone
else. A friend told me about a tense deacons’ meeting he attended.
Apparently there was more agitation than agreement, and after a lengthy
discussion, someone suggested, “Why don’t we pray about it?” to
which another questioned, “Has it come to that?”
What causes us to think of prayer as the last option rather than the
first?
___________________________
From A Gentle Thunder
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1995) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com
by Max Lucado
It’s your best friend’s wedding. “I’ll take care of the
reception,” you’d volunteered. You planned the best party possible. You
hired the band, rented the hall, catered the meal, decorated the room,
and asked your Aunt Bertha to bake the cake.
Now the band is playing and the guests are milling, but Aunt Bertha is
nowhere to be seen. Everything is here but the cake. You sneak over to
the pay phone and dial her number. She’s been taking a nap. She
thought the wedding was next week.
Oh boy! Now what do you do? Talk about a problem! Everything is here
but the cake …
Sound familiar?
It might. It’s exactly the dilemma Jesus’ mother, Mary, was facing.
Back then, wine was to a wedding what cake is to a wedding today.
What Mary faced was a social problem. No need to call 911, but no way
to sweep the embarrassment under the rug, either.
When you think about it, most of the problems we face are of the same
caliber. We’re late for a meeting. We leave something at the office. A
coworker forgets a report. Mail gets lost. Traffic gets snarled. The
waves rocking our lives are not life threatening yet. But they can be. A
poor response to a simple problem can light a fuse.
For that reason you might want to note how Mary reacted. Her solution
poses a practical plan for untangling life’s knots. “They have no
more wine,” she told Jesus (John 2:3). That’s it. That’s all she
said. She didn’t go ballistic. She simply assessed the problem and gave
it to Christ.
It’s so easy to focus on everything but the solution. Mary didn’t
do that. She simply looked at the knot, assessed it, and took it to the
right person. “I’ve got one here I can’t untie, Jesus.”
“When all the wine was gone Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have
no more wine’” (John 2:3).
Please note, she took the problem to Jesus before she took it to anyone
else. A friend told me about a tense deacons’ meeting he attended.
Apparently there was more agitation than agreement, and after a lengthy
discussion, someone suggested, “Why don’t we pray about it?” to
which another questioned, “Has it come to that?”
What causes us to think of prayer as the last option rather than the
first?
___________________________
From A Gentle Thunder
Copyright (W Publishing Group, 1995) Max Lucado
www.maxlucado.com