A Thought For The Week Of January 21

Thought for the week: "They said to [Samuel], “You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” (1 Samuel 8:5) Barack Obama is being sworn in as president today. Well, not really. He was actually sworn in yesterday - but yesterday being a Sunday, it was a very low key ceremony that lasted about 2 minutes. Today they're going to do it again - just for the show, of course. And trumpets will blare, and bands will play and parades will be held. All the trappings on display. It always intrigues me that for a country born out of a rebellion against a monarchy, Americans sure invest their presidents with a lot of kingly trappings. And it made me think about Israel. Israel demanded a king. Supposedly, God was their King, but they weren't satisfied with that. They wanted to be like everyone else. God really wasn't good enough. And thinking about that made me think about Christians today. We have a King. His name is Jesus - the King of kings! But how many of us really let Him reign over our lives. And how often do we just want to be like everyone else, hiding our light, and easily setting aside the gospel and Jesus' clear teachings when we decide that they're just to hard for us to follow - or maybe they're not necessarily too hard; maybe we just don't want to follow them, so we act as if they don't exist, probably so that we won't stand out too much; so that we can look and act like everyone else. I think Jesus wants us to stand out in the crowd. I think Jesus wants us to live out the gospel in ways that make people stand up and take notice - not of us and how good we are, but of Him and of the difference He makes. That's our challenge. Being noticed for the gospel; being noticed for Jesus; being noticed in a way that bears faithful witness to both. Have a great week.