by Pastor Douglas Brauner
Living with Danger at Our Backs
You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.
“Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.”
Philippians 4:11 English Standard Version
I grew up loving Disney movies, even those that didn’t receive great reviews. That love of Disney movies expanded to Pixar animated flicks and others. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the times that I have watch the movie, Cars. Needless to say, my nine-month-old grandson loves it too.
It is not that Disney and Pixar movies are without danger, indeed there is plenty of trouble. Will Lightning McQueen make it to the Big Race, will Shrek save Fiona, will Prince Charming come to the rescue of Cinderella?
As you know, there is always a “happily-ever-after” ending. Prince Charming fits the slipper on Cinderella, Shrek marries Fiona, and Stickers makes it to the Big Race and pushes a wrecked “Mr. the King” across the finish line.
Would that all human stories ended like these movies!
As a pastor, I witnessed too many stories that ended in tragedy. In one year, I buried a three-year-old and two twenty-year old people who both died in separate car accidents. I have walked with people whose happily-ever-after marriages ended in divorce.
Like unexpected sneaker waves that can wash a person to sea, we live in a place and at a time when we find danger sneaking up on us.
Paul’s life was anything but a fairy tale (2 Corinthians 11:21-29). Yet, as he writes to the Philippians, he has learned a better lesson than a fairy tale ending. He has learned to be content. His contentment came from his relationship to Jesus, the one who died and rose for him. No matter what people did to him this side of the grave, they could not take away the fact that he was a child of God.
Though we might not experience fairy tale endings, we will always have Jesus. He is our source of contentment when danger is at our backs.
Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
