Many Are Broken
“Here’s to lookin’ at you, kid.”
When people look in the mirror they often see what they’re looking for. Are they looking at what they think is perfect or are they looking for something that needs to be corrected?
I learned many things in my young life. One thing that has been beneficial was learning not to take myself too seriously. Since I was the youngest in my family I ended up the back side of a number of jokes.
I admit that if I couldn’t find a dumb way to do something there wasn’t a dumb way to do it. For many years I had an inferiority complex due to being the object of jokes such as “When God was passing out brains you thought he said trains, and since you weren’t going anywhere you didn’t get any.”
Well, it is kind of funny, but it does present a difficulty in getting over such logic. Yet, the ability to laugh at yourself is a commodity that is lacking in society today. And too many people, especially young people are way too wound up in themselves and their safe space.
A few months ago I read a reply a famous person made to someone trying to control who he affiliated with. The critic said to the man, “If you’re working with Prager U, I won’t have anything to do with you. You’ve lost all my respect.” I believe it was written to Mike Rowe, and he replied, “Dear, *** since I don’t know you, what makes you think I value your respect?”
A good question indeed, he wasn’t running for any office, and even at that, we should choose whose values we support. Back in the late 1980s, Phil Gramm was a congressman from Texas. He ran as a Democrat and won his seat, but sometime into his term, he realized the party had left him behind. They no longer represented his values. He went back home, explained to his constituents what had happened, and ran again as a Republican and won again.
Later in the year, he had a communication with his mother. “I have some good news and some bad,” he said. “They were thinking of putting my face on a postal stamp.” (Just a note here, this was before they had come out with the self-stick stamp.) “—They decided against it due to the number of people who would be spitting at it and pounding on the front.”
That was my remembrance of the exchange but not being able to find the quote, it may not have been his exact words. I remember it as very funny in his speech. The point of which was don’t take yourself too seriously.
Matthew 22:
“11 And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13 Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”
It is my understanding that the host provided the wedding garment. All the guest needed to do was put it on. No wonder the guest was speechless, and no wonder the host was offended. How rude. “Many are called but few are chosen.” In this case, he was called but didn’t choose to be chosen.
Matthew 20:
“14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.”
In this case as well, many are called but few are chosen. The workers in this instance aren’t content with their wages compared to those who worked a short time and received the same amount. Well, as the landowner says, it’s my money and you agreed to work for…
In the military, boot camp and the time spent therein is designed to ‘break’ a new recruit in order to remold them into what the military needs. In that sense, many are called and all are broken—and remolded.
And there you have it. We are all called for salvation, but it is up to us to accept the challenge to be chosen.
