Did you know? In California, it is illegal for women drivers to be wearing their housecoats; there is to be no moth hunting under streetlamps; no wearing of cowboy boots is allowed unless you own cows? And in Texas, if you sit on a sidewalk, you will be fined, or for wire cutters carried in your pocket, or for eating your neighbor’s garbage? In New York State it is illegal to carry ice cream in your pocket on Sundays, or to speak to anyone in elevators, or throw a ball at someone’s head, or to wear slippers after 10 PM? These are real laws which were enshrined at a different time and for supposedly good reason, although that reasoning escapes me at this time. Locally, I was stopped several years ago and made to read another such law taped to the back of the officer’s clipboard. The much-tattered enactment declared that a moving vehicle was to wait until there was a minimum space of 500’ before attempting a merge into traffic (roughly 40 car lengths). In Virginia, obeying that law would create ‘carmageddon!’ You can find many such extinct laws on the books; laws never rescinded but oddities these many years later.
The world we live in considers Christians and Christianity as more or less extinct and reacts with surprise when meeting an individual claiming to be a follower of Jesus in 2024. It’s as if they’re seeing a Tyrannosaurus Rex walking down the sidewalk. The next supposition might be that that person thinks the world is flat and storks deliver babies. It seems one part of Jesus’ wish, that we would be in the world but not of it, has become reality. We may be asked, “Are you for real?” or “Do you live under a rock?” or “What planet are you from?” Yep. Not of this world.
The 2,000-year-old promises Jesus spoke are true with no diminishing. They continue to pulsate with life, transforming and re-transforming us as we live our way to the Father’s heart. The hymnwriter penned, ‘How Firm A Foundation’ perhaps while thinking of the incredible series of life-changing promises of the Father. All we could ask for is covered. All we need is provided. All we dream about doing, set within the scope of the Father’s desires for us, finds direction. One Godly friend, when asked, “How are you?” would respond, “Can’t complain and be honest.” So true. So true. PD
