Refreshing Candor at Christmastime

[First things first - my thanks to friend & UM Minister extraordinaire Brad Martin for getting me this picture.  I saw it as I was leaving Parkview UMC in Miamisburg (Ohio) but didn't get a picture until Brad was willing to tromp out there on foot & get it & send it to me - muchas gracias, Brad (I was going to try to say that in Hindi or Tamil in honor of your recent trip to India, but Google Translate let me down)].

It's good to be reminded occasionally that if you are trying to live a Kingdom kind of life, you will spend a lot of time 'swimming upstream' with regard to the world in which we live.

We don't need to be reminded so that we can think bad thoughts about that heathen world 'out there', but so that we remember why we keep running into lots of people/philosophies/lives headed in a different direction.

As a (not so) proud owner of my very own Storage Unit, this sign made me laugh out loud -  NOT at the folks at Advantage Self Storage, but at my own sometimes fevered attempts to hang on to my Stuff (George Carlin, you were right again).

Again, our job is not to throw rocks at the folks who aren't trying to live as members of the Kingdom, but to make our own course corrections day by day.  Remember the complete list of rules for how to live as members of God's Kingdom:

1. Remember Christ is Lord.
2. Don't be a jerk.

Namaste