Daily Ornament

by Pastor Carnell, McAlester, OK

“Why Settle When You Can Select?”
"...if you accept My words and store up My commands within you…and (IF) you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding..." – Proverbs 2:3 (NIV, emphasis mine)

There was a commercial out a few years ago that to this day I continue to draw upon due to its impact upon me. I even created a sermon series with a line from the commercial simply because of its message. It was a Campbell’s soup commercial for a line of soups that they referred to as their “Select” Soups. The very last line from the spokesperson was: “Why settle when you can select?” What I like about that line has nothing to do with soup (for me anyway) but how we approach life—and more importantly the Christian life!
All that God has to offer is great! In fact, the life that He wants to give is excellent. Absolutely the very best. But useless! Whoa, wait a minute! Preacher, you’ve lost it now! How can you say something like that? How can it be great and useless at the same time?
Because the life He wants to give must be sought for and pursued. God says it is available – but we must pursue it with passion and with purpose. In his classic book, “The Journey of Desire,” John Eldredge writes,
“Something awful has happened, something terrible. Something worse, even than the fall of man. For in that greatest of all tragedies, we lost Paradise – and with it, everything that made life worth living. What has happened since is unthinkable; we’ve gotten used to it. We’re broken in to the idea that this is just the way things are. The people who walk in great darkness have adjusted their eyes.”
What Eldredge was attempting to get across is that since the fall most people adjust their lives to fit in with those around them. We accept what most other people deem is acceptable. In addition, we hold on to values and beliefs passed down to us often without questioning where those values and beliefs came from! That is not to say that those things are wrong. We need to have guidelines and standards especially if they are based upon scriptural foundations. But in regards to everything else, what if we could do better? What if what God wants for us could surpass anything we have ever experienced? Do we dare ask for more?
I have been drawn recently to this passage from John’s gospel, and one that has a great implication if we allow ourselves to follow and believe it.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” – John 15:5-8

We will never know what is available to us unless or until we ask the King of Life! Seek the Lord of Love and Knock hard and often on the doors of Heaven and see what is available!