Don't Squander the Wander!

I just couldn’t wait to get in the room. The big gym filled with tables and games, toys, and sweets. All for the taking, if we had a ticket to trade. Fist full of little strips of pastel tickets, perforated and each holding a magical number for the end of day raffle. These are the things childish dreams are made of.

Which way to start? What direction to run first? Which table held the most coveted prize? Surveying the room, making my mental list, and off I trekked. In search of treasure. Traded treasure. My ticket for their reward.

Casting line on a pole for numbers on the bottom of fish, throwing balls at bottles stacked high, rings tossed ever so gingerly in order to topple over bottle tops. All the fun. And cotton candy. A day in the life of a kid at the fair.

Somehow, we weave the thread of such memories and cravings into our grown-up story of faith. Entering a church gymnasium filled with the lingering smell of wood varnish, wet paint, and the sweat of pre-teen youth, it is easy to be transported back to the days of the fair. We might even fish for a lingering ticket in our pocket, hoping for a table of our most nostalgic treasures.

Walking into a new church, or even the church of our youth, there is much more beyond that gym. We might just find ourselves doing the same dance walking through the doors of the sanctuary. Entering in with a Bible in hand, a few acceptable phrases, and maybe even a family pew, we look around and evaluate where to plug in first. Shall we volunteer here or there? Do they have a place for us in this ministry or that committee? Where can I serve, and how can I move up the spiritual ladder? Where do I collect my tickets for the fair? Which prize shall I strive for now?

While such motivation can absolutely be God-given and God-driven, sometimes, just sometimes, our flesh gets in the way. What becomes pinnacle is how we might just help God out, you know, because we are all that and a bag of chips. In our eyes.

But Jesus is looking for followers who love Him more than they love themselves, and much more than they love their resumes. Jesus is looking for those who are looking for those who need Jesus. People who will help those who cannot help them back. People who give when it won’t or can’t be returned. Followers who lead to the cross, not lead in order to be seen. Servants with a servant heart, linking arms, hearts, and giftings with others who just want Jesus to be known.

Satan is all about the cotton candy. Spun up sugar, looking fluffy and fine, only to dissolve on our tongue and leave us with a sugar crash. Walk away, dear one, walk away. Leave the fleeting, spinning mirage of fame. Leave the mirage of the mystical, and return to the Bread of Life. Jesus. The One who sustains our spirit. The truth that is simple, pure, and effective. The truth that saves.

Oh, friend. Fellow follower of Christ. Let us all be a people who continually commit to taking every ticket we’ve ever earned and laying it down at the feet of Jesus. Placing them where every ticket will ever belong anyway. It is for His glory we serve, not our own. It is His position that matters, as we kneel before His throne. It is His kingdom that prospers, not our house of cards built on striving and illusion of status or fame or cotton candy.