9/20/11

Close, but so far away


Wiley E. Coyote.  I enjoy watching him because of his creativity and determination.  Think of all the ideas he has had to catch the road runner!  Whenever I open a phone book to the first page and see the word "Acme", I think of him.  Yet, for all his abilities, he continually fails...why?  Perhaps this passage from Romans will help us understand...

Romans 1:13-21 (WEB)
13) Now I don’t desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.
14) I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish.
15) So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome.
16) For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.
17) For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.”
18) For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
19) because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them.
20) For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse.
21) Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.

Thinking, the answer is in his thinking.  He just doesn't get it.  The road runner is beyond his reach and he will never, ever, get him.  But, he keeps trying and trying and trying and trying; all in vain!  Why?  Look at verse 21.  Stubbornness clouds reasoning and eventually blocks all understanding.  We, as human beings, can try to know everything, try to control everything, but eventually (if we are smart enough) we realize there is someone smarter and more powerful than any human being.  Wiley E. Coyote is both smart and stupid at the same time; perhaps we can learn from his mistakes and realize all the futility around us and turn from the path that excludes God.  Until we do, we will be just like him and go nowhere, even though we may rev our motor all the way up, we will still stay right where we are.  And God is laughing!