Saturday, June 11, 2011 - Come to Jesus

"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart,

and you will find rest for your souls.

For My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Matthew 28:11

We watched the movie "Changing Lanes" (rated R for language) last night. Spoiler alert: It's the story of how on one fateful morning, a wealthy man oblivious to the sin in his life crashes into a man who's trying to overcome his obvious sin and keep his family together.  The lawyer (Ben Affleck) makes the first wrong move - causing the crash and then leaving the scene to get to a multi-million dollar court case. As a result of the wreck, the recovering alcoholic (Samuel L. Jackson) misses a custody hearing and loses his family. From that point on it's a vendetta story - one man attacking the other and then retalitating with a more horrible revenge. Throughout the movie Ben Affleck's character keeps muttering, "Why didn't I just give him the insurance card?" Taking the time to handle the collision the right way would have saved him a lot of inner searching, not to mention a court case and a nice car.

    At one point during the day, when he nearly died because the angry alcoholic sabotaged his car, the lawyer heads into a church filled with worshipers. He sits in the confessional booth to hide and when the priest is ready to hear his confession, he does the opposite of confessing, he blames the world for his problems. He thought church words and songs would give him peace and soothe his soul, but he left the building worse off than before because he hadn't come to Jesus to confess and "change lanes."
     The alcoholic wanted to handle the collision "the right way," by exchanging insurance cards and information. As he was doing everything in his power to do things "the right way," someone crashed into him who wanted to throw him a blank check to cover damages. He couldn't accept less than the right way even though he could have come out financially better the other way. As the plot thickens, we find this alcoholic represents the Pharisees - though tempted by his circumstances, he didn't take a drink all throughout his horrible day. To his way of thinking, not taking a drink should have ensured everything else in his life went smoothly, but life asked more of him. He found he had to do more than not drink to succeed: he would have to change lanes as well. 

     We, too, hide in churches and blame our circumstances for the sin (past and present) haunting our lives when Jesus is the only Way to the peace and soul-soothing rest  we crave. Like the alcoholic who had to do the next right thing every moment of his life, we easily obsess over correcting or perfecting one part of ourselves instead of the whole. Both men had to face up to who they were inside were and realize they needed to change lanes. What does it take in real life? Saved or lost, rich or poor, sins hidden or obvious, we must turn to Jesus, kneel in our hearts if not on our knees, confess specific sins and ask forgiveness. Then, and only then, do we have the power to change lanes.

Lord, it's too easy to avoid dealing with what's really eating our lunches, what's really the problem. Like the men in the movie, we see what we want to see and all have blind spots about the sin issues. Open our eyes and help us do the simplest thing: come to You, confess to You, receive Your forgiveness, and let You put us on the right track.

In the Name of Jesus, Forgiver and Cleanser of our Souls

Inspired by My Utmost for His Highest and the movie "Changing Lanes"