I am generally amused by the experience of returning merchandise to a store. Some stores want to know why the product is being brought back while others just have you sign for the return and hand back your money... or most recently a gift card. I'm not amused by that.
We used to do a sketch back in my ol' JP (Jeremiah People) days called the "Return Department" where a man walks up to the counter and tries to return his Christianity. This store clerk was interested in why the "customer" wanted to give back his faith. The reason... "It's just not cracked up to be what it promised to do." So, with that in mind I hear another old song my mother used to have playing around the house when I was growing up...
I beg your pardon,
I never promised you a rose garden.
Along with the sunshine,
there's got to be a little rain sometime.
Far too often I see people walking up to the celestial return counter trying to exchange what they have for what they want. Got a difficult boss... "God, I want a new one!" Got a problem child... "God, I want a different one!" or "Can you just take this one back?" Got a lazy husband or inattentive wife? "God, don't look but I'm gonna just get me a new one that I can use instead." Ironically, I know some other folks who have cancer, lost a loved one and raising a down-syndrome child and these wouldn't trade in their faith for anything. If you were to ask, they would say... "Take anything else you see I have but don't take away the one thing that gives me hope."
We "customers," like the different types of stores, either don't ask questions and just hand it over or we try to find out what the problem is and fix it.
Time and time again, prior to the arrival of Jesus, the people of God experienced God's mercy and kindness but turn their backs on Him.
“I am the Lord, and I do not change. That is why you descendants of Jacob are not already destroyed. Ever since the days of your ancestors, you have scorned my decrees and failed to obey them. Now return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “But you ask, ‘How can we return when we have never gone away?’" Malachi 3:6-7
- When was the last time you thought "My faith's just not working?"
- When or did it ever start again?
- What was the problem or cause and how did it get better?
- Why doesn't obedience seem to "fit?"
- Did your faith have great appeal when you first got it? Did it lose it's shine over time?
- Why did Jesus say "Return to the works you did at first" in Rev.2:5?
- What aspects of your faith do you feel like returning? What would an Upgrade look like instead?
Time and time again since the days of Jesus, the people of God turn their backs on Him and go on selfish, personal pursuits of pleasure and power making our faith less desirable and unusable. Instead of turning away from God and returning what was given to us simply because it doesn't fit like it used to, we should be retuning for more! Walking by the "return counter" and right up to the shelves of new faith, refills of obedience and boxes of love, compassion and selfless service. These things never go out of style and are easy to check out, give away and return for more. There's a never ending supply; not only because the inventory is vast but there's usually someone standing at the return department wanting to turn theirs in.
