Have you ever noticed that sometimes things just don’t turn out the way you expected them to? They can be good ideas, but at the moment they are first introduced, they don’t produce the expected or advertised results. I remember reading Lee Iacocca’s book, Iacocca. In it he tells of introducing the new padded dashboard on their newest cars. The dashboards were supposed to be soft enough that you could drop an egg on it without breaking the egg. In actual demonstration, it didn’t turn out quite that way.
My family, when I was growing up, was just financially strapped enough that we rarely paid much attention to the latest and newest products. I mean, even though I grew up right in the vicinity where it happened, it was a long time before I knew what a McDonald’s was.
My cousins, who lived just a few blocks from us, weren’t that way. They seemed to know all the latest and newest products immediately when they came out. I remember when soda pop was first introduced as being available in cans. It was several years before our family bought soda pop in cans, but not my cousins. After they were released in that form, my cousins family bought some right away.
But, just like Lee Iacocca’s dashboard, I’m not sure that soda pop in the cans was quite refined enough when first introduced. My cousin discovered that when he first opened a can. I don’t know if the recipe wasn’t quite perfected for can packaging, or if the can was not chilled, or if they had somehow dropped or shaken the can, but they were sure in for a surprise when they opened it.
They hadn’t developed pop tops in those days. Nope, you had to use those triangle tip shaped beer can openers back then. When my cousin punctured the first can, it was like a rocket blast. The carbonated soda pop spewed out of that can with such force that it sprayed all over the ceiling. My cousin burst into laughter. My aunt wasn’t quite so joyous! Expectations aren’t always the same as the results.
Jesus’ disciples had lofty ideas of what was going to be the results of the coming of the Messiah. They expected glory, rewards, and powerful positions. Therefore, they were shocked and unprepared when Jesus told them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” They understood that a cross signified suffering. It was a place where people went to die. And deny myself, my desires, and my aspirations? That’s not what they understood the advertised results to be.
But that is what Jesus called them, and us as well, to be and do. Sometimes the results just don’t turn out like what we were expecting. Yet, His call to us remains the same.
– Just a Thought Dale Fillmore is lead pastor at New Day Church.
