Tougher'n Nails

This morning in church I was reminded of my later teen years, when I was "gung-ho" for Jesus.  The unabashed, blatant love for Christ that many church-going teenagers and young people can have.  In fact, my sister and I both had these gruesome, Good Friday-themed t-shirts with the saying "Jesus, tougher'n Nails" written on them.  They seriously grossed out my mother.  We have a picture of at least one of us donning it proudly.

After years of being raised in the United Church, dad let me venture out to other churches in search of young people and youth groups provided they were teaching about Jesus.  My mother, built of a mixture of worldly knowledge, girly knowledge, and incredible worry, sat me down and said, "You better know what information's coming at you, or you'll up in some cult like David Koresh."  Of course I rolled my eyes, but I never forgot it.

Over the years, I have met many wonderful caring people, in several different congregations.  I have also met several rather misguided, and perhaps scary, individuals who had "great" ideas in healing, and getting to know the Lord.  With my mother's words in my pocket, I managed to keep to the straight and narrow.  I surrounded myself with the Word, teachings of Christ, and the Apostle Paul, and books by Phillip Yancey, Kay Arthur and Max Lucado.

With years of real life chipping away at me, I confess that "gung-ho" attitude has been replaced with a more cautious and serious yet still sincere belief in Christ.  I have many more wounds on my armour than I did back then, but I still believe He is tougher'n nails.

So this morning when our pastor spoke of cults, their leaders, and misguided faith, I thought about the big "doomsday" billboards in the U.S. that proclaimed the end of the world.  Sure, they were wrong, and misguided, and a good laugh, but shouldn't we believe every day is going to be the end of the world?  Shouldn't we live our hours as if He is coming to meet us tomorrow morning?

Now, in hindsight, I do not mean spend all of your money, skip work, or don't have a shower.  I mean spiritually, folks, let get ourselves in gear!  How do we do that? I am probably not the best one to ask, but I know it starts with the little things: saying sorry to your kids for freaking out about something ridiculous; smiling at your neighbour whom you've never really enjoyed; or listening instead of talking.

Think about this: when you meet Christ, and He asks you, "What did you do yesterday?" what will be your answer?