As I get older I tend to see myself morph into a stereotype I had had for others. Generalities are beginning to inhabit entire people groups..."those young whipper snappers." Respect is being demanded on account of my age not my character. Seeing certain objects is futile no matter how many times I raise or lower my head. Times of yesteryear ("when I was a boy") have remembrances of perfection even though many of these thoughts are tainted.
To keep myself from fading too quickly into this morass I look to my kids for some sort of relevance. In this particular instance I was watching a TV series with my son. "Fringe" has a story line which develops a parallel universe. You can bet it took more than a pair of "cheaters" to bring this into focus.
One specific episode shows a man, in our world, who had developed into a caring professor intent on helping people deal with their difficult past. This same man, in the parallel universe, grew up to be a serial killer intent on making everyone pay for the demons that followed him. What was shown to be the difference? This world of ours showed the helpful professor had had a woman who cared for and loved him in his brutal childhood. The man in the parallel universe had no one to shelter him from the abuse he had experienced.
As usual I got sidetracked. This tangent took me elsewhere and left me wanting more. No extrapolation on this woman occurred but I so badly wanted her story told. What was she like? What did she do? How was she involved in this boy's life? I know, it's a TV show, but it's the same story we all live. Who has affected my life? Whose hand do I hold when I'm bad? Whose hand do I hold when they're sad? Who do I laugh at when they're joked about? How long is my reach? How swift is my kick? Do I yell at the merging motorist? Am I impatient with my co-worker? Am I short with my child? Is this really something I do or is it something I have become? My guess is that this woman didn't plan or do anything unusual, she probably just was.
How do I just be like Christ? Of course, putting aside me watching a TV series about a parallel universe, what do I fill my mind with? I'm not a hormonal rhythm crier or a subliminal backwards masker but what do I allow to affect my life? Do I hold true to the statues God puts forth in His Word? Does the love and mercy of my Savior ooze from my life?
And why shouldn't it ooze? In a way I live in a parallel universe. In I Corinthians 15:42 Paul states it like this; "...the body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
Unlike the "Fringe" God has enabled me to move past the depression of the parallel universe and the hopelessness of our universe and has given me the opportunity to change my eternal outcome and enjoy peace, joy and hope through the shed blood of His sacrificial Son.
