Good morning…
A funky movie clip plays with my brain as I consider walking away from 2016. I feel like Navin (Steve Martin) walking away from Marie (Bernadette Peters) in the 1979 movie “The Jerk.”
“Well I’m gonna to go then! And I don’t need any of this,” says Navin. “I don’t need this stuff, and I don’t need *you*. I don’t need anything. Except this.”
[picks up an ashtray]
“And that’s the only thing I need is *this*. I don’t need this or this. Just this ashtray… And this paddle game. – The ashtray and the paddle game and that’s all I need… And this remote control. – The ashtray, the paddle game, and the remote control, and that’s all I need… And these matches. – The ashtray, and these matches, and the remote control, and the paddle ball… And this lamp. – The ashtray, this paddle game, and the remote control, and the lamp, and that’s all *I* need. And that’s *all* I need too. I don’t need one other thing, not one… I need this. – The paddle game and the chair, and the remote control, and the matches for sure. Well what are you looking at? What do you think I’m some kind of a jerk or something! – And this. That’s all I need.”
[walking outside]
“The ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game, and this magazine, and the chair.”
[outside now]
“And I don’t need one other thing, except my dog.”
[dog growls at him]
“I don’t need my dog.”
Walking awkwardly encumbered down the road, I can imaging Navin meeting Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Those who heard this asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God,” (Luke 18:24-27, NIV).
Walking into 2017, might we trust God to help us put down our ashtray and paddle game, our remote control and matches, our lamp, chair, and magazine?
…Sue…
