The classic tale of a fish called Nemo took movie-going children by
wave of laughter and deep delight. I believe most adults found the
story to be quite enjoyable as well. Our youngest daughter of four
was quite taken with the seagulls and their ever-raging voices ringing
out together, 'mine, mine, mine!' She even refers to these gluttonous
sea birds as ' 'The Mines.' For those of you who have not seen this
fish tale of a son disobeying his father and his father's frantic
search and rescue, the part of the seagulls is depicted very well.
Whenever there is food or something they desire within their sites,
they clamor as one, shouting in unison, 'Mine!' Quite humorous on
screen, but I got to thinking how we as the faithful Christians at
times seem to give off the same air to those in the world and even
to our own brethren.
The Lord instructed that the word be taken into,
'all the world' and for us to 'preach the Gospel to all creation'
(Mark 16:15). Do we not at times seem to almost want to keep the Word
unto ourselves? After all, it is 'mine'. Many of us are busy working
and running households- this cuts into much of our time to study the
Word. For many of us we are afraid to take the Gospel and share it
with others, due to our lack of knowledge and practice. So, it is
easier per se to just not deal with it and keep the 'Great Pearl'
unto ourselves. How selfish we have become. Just like the seagulls,
we pronounce by our lack of sharing the faith with those who are lost,
that God's word and our understanding are just, 'mine'.
We have many
examples that can be found of selfishness in the Bible. There are
two that demonstrate well how we at times appear to the world. One
is the story of the 'Good Samaritan' (Luke 10:25-37). From the very
onset of this scene we see a lawyer ask Christ, 'What shall I do to
inherit eternal life?' Christ responds by having the lawyer answer
his own question,
"YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR
MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF" (Deuteronomy 6:5)
We can see within
the lawyer's own response that we are to love God with all our heart
and being, this in turn spills over to our neighbor. If we love our
Lord as He has commanded us, would not our obedience to His love be
the sharing of the Word with our neighbor, as we loved ourselves enough
to have learned it?
The lawyer continues, desiring to make himself look justified, he asks, 'just who is my neighbor?' Christ replies to him and all that were present, that a man was traveling down from Jerusalem to Jericho and he was overtaken and beaten by thieves. Left half dead on the side of the road a priest and a Levite passed by him on the other side of the road- to busy, to fearful, too much 'mine', and left him to die there in his own bloodied and bruised body, without a coin to his name. It was a man from a lowly despised retched group of people, known as Samaritans, that the Jews despised, that stopped, carried, paid for, and visited the assaulted man.
The Samaritan took
the 'I' from 'mine' and shared his love with a man outside his group.
The Priest and the Levite were as the seagulls, they stood off in
their own clan, claiming: 'Mine, Mine, Mine.' For fear and lack of
love kept these two men from loving their neighbors as themselves.
Another
example of the 'mine' syndrome can be found in the story of the talents
(Matthew 25:14-30). A master, who was leaving on a journey, set forth
to three different individuals the task of caring for a varying amount
of talents. Each person was given what the master knew he could handle.
The master (just as our Master) knew the abilities that lain within
each of his servants; he gave them no more or less than what they
were capable of doing while he was away.
To one, he gave five talents.
The servant took these, used them wisely, and gained five more talents
to give to his master upon his return. To the second, he gave two
talents. The servant took these, used them wisely, and gained two
more talents to give to his master upon his return. How the master
was pleased. He knew and trusted these individuals to go and use what
he had entrusted to them. These first two shared, and gained so much
more than they ever could have imagined. But, there was one, one who
kept his talent. He claims he buried his talent due to fear. Fear,
like the kind of fear we may have today of sharing and using the talents
God has blessed us with? Even if our talent is singular in nature,
does not God call upon all that obey Him to be a worker for the Lord?
We know the outcome of the one who buried his talent. His 'mine' attitude
cast him into outer darkness, away from the light and love of his
master.
These are but only two examples of how we demonstrate to the world that our faith is either ours or mine only. There are times when we even may do this unto our own brothers and sisters in Christ. Is there a weak brother or sister amongst you? Do they need a Bible study? Do they need prayers? Do they need friends that will open up themselves and let them become a part of them? Are you in a group of 'mines' that exclude other members of the Lord's body from being a part of your social and spiritual activities?
Remember, as
in the story of Little Nemo, the seagulls never seemed satisfied.
Seagulls are known to be gluttonous creatures, with insatiable appetites
for more, more, more! If all you are doing is keeping God's word for
yourself, you will never feel spiritual fulfillment. There will always
being something missing in your spiritual appetite. It is only through
sharing the bread of life that we can experience an eternity filled
completely with our Saviors' love and grace. Only by leaving the 'mines'
behind us can we overcome the Evil One, and have our souls blessed
by the eternal light of Jehovah God.
"But sanctify Christ as Lord
in your hearts, always {being} ready to make a defense to everyone
who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with
gentleness and reverence" (I Peter 3:15).
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