When we were in high school, my brother and I hated David Letterman. In our humble estimation, he was annoying, self-aggrandizing, and just not that funny.
And then I talked with some friends that really dug David Letterman. And so we decided to give him one more chance.
At one point Dave was doing something totally weird during his Top 10 list that had absolutely nothing to do with his Top 10 list. Probably making faces at the camera or something.
My brother was getting annoyed: "Dude, get on with the show!" he shouted at the t.v.
"But Daniel," I said, suddenly enlightened to the ways of Dave, "he is the show."
Enter Jesus.
We generally want the show of our lives to move along towards something--a family, a job, a degree, a dating relationship, the issues of our lives or our own nettled souls all worked out and tidy and over and done with.
But Jesus is seldom in as big a rush as we are to get on with the show. Mostly, he wants our lives to be built around his Life. Mostly, he wants us to become fully healthy human beings, fully alive, utterly Real.
Most of this movement from barely alive to Wide-Awake Real does not happen at the end points of our mini-journeys towards a job or a degree or a relationship or forgiving someone who has hurt us.
Most of the real soul work happens in the process of getting to those end points. Those are the places where we learn the heart and character of our Lord.
Once we embraced the reality that David Letterman was what the show was all about, we were able to kick back and enjoy the show.
Once we embrace the reality that our lives are really about Jesus we can kick back and enjoy the process of getting to our eventual destinations. And who knows, maybe we'll actually reach those end-points and be sad that the journey is over.
So to sum up: Jesus is to our lives as David Letterman is to Late Night with David Letterman. Of course, most of you probably already knew that...
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