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Scripture for the day: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Thought for the day: Not long ago I saw a T-shirt that read: I can only please one person per day. Today’s not your day (tomorrow doesn’t look good either). I chuckled to myself because I often feel the same way. If we’re truly honest, most of us have those moments, don’t we? Please! Tell me I’m not alone in this.
A number of years ago Ricky Nelson wrote a song called “The Garden Party,” after he’d held a concert for at which a number of other performers were present. Reviews of the event were generally negative because he didn’t sing what they thought he was going to sing and didn’t look like the Ricky Nelson they all remembered. In response, Ricky said:
But it’s all right now;
I’ve learned my lesson well.
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you’ve got to please yourself.
Both of these examples illustrate an antisocial and very self-centered approach to the whole problem of who is pleased with us and who isn’t. Neither should probably be taken as a good philosophy of life. On the other hand, we can easily go too far in the other direction.
An old fable that has been passed down for generations tells about an elderly man who was traveling with a boy and a donkey. As they walked through a village, the man was leading the donkey and the boy was walking behind. The townspeople said the old man was a fool for not riding, so to please them he climbed up on the animal’s back. When they came to the next village, the people said the old man was cruel to let the child walk while he enjoyed the ride. So, to please them, he got off and set the boy on the animal’s back and continued on his way. In the third village, people accused the child of being lazy for making the old man walk, and the suggestion was made that they both ride. So the man climbed on and they set off again. In the fourth village, the townspeople were indignant at the cruelty to the donkey because he was made to carry two people. The frustrated man was last seen carrying the donkey down the road.
So if I can’t please myself and I can’t please everyone else, who can I please? From today’s scripture we should see that the obvious answer is that we strive to please the Lord every day. “Don’t you know,” says Paul, “that the Holy Spirit inhabits your heart if you’ve accepted the free gift of salvation He offers?” “Don’t you know that Jesus paid a tremendous price on the cross of Calvary for your freedom from sin?” “Don’t you know that the real purpose of your life, above any career goals you may have, is to please God the Father?”
We often shrink back from the allusions to slavery in the Bible because we get a mental picture of someone bound in chains and forced to labor all day in the hot sun against his or her will. We often think of those who were enslaved in our own country, beaten, sold, or worse with no power to resist. But that’s not what Paul is talking about. Being bought with a great price means that Jesus paid for us much more than we were worth so he could take the chains of sin from us and set us free. We choose to live in service to him, not because we’re forced by law, but because we’re constrained by love.
Now go take on your world. - Bill