The Yellow Car
Toni hadn’t been in her friend’s house for more than 5 minutes when there was some loud banging at the front door.
Reference: For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (Ephesians 5:8 NIV)
Explore: Toni Powell tells a brilliant story about a yellow car.
She went to visit a friend and before her friend would even let her in the door she said, “You didn’t park on the neighbour’s nature strip did you?” Toni affirmed that she had not and it was then that the normal social greetings were exchanged.
Toni hadn’t been in her friend’s house for more than 5 minutes when there was some loud banging at the front door. It was the neighbour asking if Toni had parked on their front lawn. Toni again confirmed that she had not and was allowed to go back to her evening of visiting.
Later that night Toni and her friends looked out the window towards the neighbour’s house. There, on their front lawn, was a yellow car. And the neighbours were not pleased.
They were circling around this yellow car, looking under it, checking the doors, the windows and at one point even tried to push the yellow car off their nature strip. Round and round they circled.
To Toni and her friends this was like a comic play. They’d never seen people so animated over a yellow car.
In between giggles, Toni asked her friend if she knew who owned the yellow car. “Yes,” she said, “it’s me!”
Application: While Toni had a good chuckle at how worked up the neighbours were, she realised that she can often do the same. And I have to agree, I’m the same.
We find something small that annoys us or upsets us and it becomes all we can focus on. We just go round and round the issue all day and all night. It consumes us.
And yet that is not how God wants us to live. In Ephesians 5 the writer tells us to “live as children of light”.
That’s not focusing on the negative, hanging onto problems, or getting bogged down with annoyances.
It’s to be fruitful in goodness, righteousness and truth.
For some reason our brains find it so easy to focus on small, irritating issues. But we must rise above, see the bigger picture and strive to live in the light as Christ taught us.
Prayer: Lord, You gave us such a fine example of focusing on our greater call rather than other people’s disagreements with us. Help us to see the bigger picture and to strive to do all that we can to make our world a better place. Amen.
What little issue is consuming you?
This article was written by Linda Bailey
Linda started theological studies in 1999 in Australia. After working for ten years in various church ministries, she now works as the breakfast producer at 89.9 LightFM - the Christian radio station in Melbourne, Australia. She writes blogs every day about passages she is currently reading in the Bible. Follow her on Google Plus +Linda Bailey or Facebook by clicking the like button on the right of this page.
1 comment:
Hi Linda, I often get bogged down with issues at work. Thanks for this post as a reminder “to see the bigger picture and to strive to do all that we can to make our world a better place”