Monday, February 15, 2010

Is Jesus in YOUR life?

One of my favorite boardgames to play when we were growing up, was Life. I recently purchased it one day when we were off work due to a snow day. It was fun sitting in front of the fireplace and reliving a childhood memory with my own son. This game was a little different than the one I had when I was young. There were a few added features and a few small things that had changed. 

When I went to my sisters house one night, I meant to take my game with me to teach my 7 yr old nephew, Landon, how to play but I ran out of the house without it, so we borrowed the neighbors Life game. I made a few comments to my sister about how this Life game was different from the one I had just bought but that overall it was still the same concept. Landon loved the game! He actually ended up doing a whole lot better than me that night! 

Well, just a few weeks after that, we found ourselves at home due to another snow fall so my sister braved the ice and brought Landon over to my house. We made cookies, rode the 4 wheeler, colored and watched movies. And in between all those fun activities, Landon continually reminded me that we needed to play Life. We had just put some cookies in the oven and Landon got my stool and planted himself down in front of the oven to "keep an eye on the cookies" as I had asked him to do. "Aunt Mamie, when are we gonna play Life?" he asked...again. "We'll play after we get done riding the 4 wheeler", I told him. There was a short moment of silence and then "So, what's different about your Life, Aunt Mamie?" Wow! I had no idea that he was even listening to me that night at my sisters, let alone remembered what I had told her about the games being different. "Well, I have Jesus in my life" I told him. (I thought that was a pretty good answer!) 

The cookies came out and were eaten as quickly as we had set them out to cool, the 4wheeler was ridden, snow angels made, snow balls thrown and then we came in to thaw out! Kelly and Landon got the game out of the closet and started setting everything up for all of us to play. I was in the kitchen getting a cookie when I heard him. "I can't find Jesus anywhere on this game!" When I looked in the living room, Landon was kneeling in front of the game looking very intensely at the board...looking very intensely for Jesus...in my Life. It made us laugh and we explained that Aunt Mamie was just trying to be funny...that Jesus wasn't really in the game. But of course that made me think. 

What is different about my life? Is it evident enough to others that I have Jesus in my life or are people so unaware of Him in me, that they have to look intensely at me to try and find Him? That 7 yr old taught me a few things that night. One, that people are constantly listening to us and watching us even when we are unaware of them. As Christians, we need to be sure that we are faithful and consistent in our walk and talk. And two, I need to make sure that other people don't have to guess or search as to whether or not Jesus is in my life or not. It should always be evident that He is there. I would hate for someone to tell me "I can't find Jesus anywhere in your life".