"Jesus, I am so excited to eat this sandwich. I've never been more pumped in my life to eat a sandwich than I am right now..."
We were in Rumbek, South Sudan across from the airport waiting on our flight back to Uganda. We had an hour to kill and found a place to get something to drink. I had been eating local food all week and it was starting to get old. Some of it was great (pumpkin especially), but some of it was hard to choke down. Wow, I had a craving for American food like never before in my life. Then, someone turned an ordinary Friday into Thanksgiving.
"Guys, they have turkey sandwiches here."
4 ordinary things: bread, mustard, turkey and cheese. But on that day, they made a masterpiece. I was so excited to get to to eat food I was familiar with. Man, that was a good sandwich. Check it:
You ever heard the phrase, familiarity breeds contempt? I have. And you know what's crazy? If I had eaten that same turkey sandwich all week, I would have been dying for something else. After all, how many times have I thought after looking in my own kitchen, "Man, there's nothing to eat." What I really mean is, there is nothing here I want to eat.
That got me thinking. How often do I take Jesus for granted? I don't pick up my bible, don't say thank you for the little things and just chalk it up to good luck and am not in awe of my Savior like I should be. It's easy to do. Be honest, you do it too. In America, we have so little opposition to Christ being a part of our lives, He often becomes a small part of our life. Because Jesus is so accessible, He becomes optional.
Yo, check it: If a simple turkey sandwich can bring that much joy to my stomach, how much more so can Jesus bring to my soul? To your soul? He can and He wants to...if we let Him. I know not everyone believes in Jesus and I'm fine with that. It's a choice and people are free to choose what is important to them.
But, if you are reading this today and are a believer in Christ, are you content or contempt in your relationship with Him? Has Christ become to familiar to you? Let Him bring joy to your soul. He wants to (John 10:10).
Eat a sandwich today and be wowed at how good it tastes. Run to Jesus today and taste and see that the Lord is good and blessed are those who take refuge in Him (Psalms 34:8).
On the up and up,
CT
