Don't be a Refrigerator
After my side-tracked rant and rave about parenting or the lack there of, we will now get back on track. I am continuing my 3 part series of “Don't be a Christian appliance” with part 2: Don't be a “Top of the Line” refrigerator. First I want to thank my friend Zech for giving me this idea from a recent sermon of his. Second I want to ask everyone a question, what is the purpose of a refrigerator? When you go out and look for a refrigerator what is the main reason you go and buy a refrigerator, what does everything boil down to with a refrigerator? When you are able to shave everything else away, all the bells/whistles/upgrades, what does a refrigerator do?
ANSWER: It keeps your food cold.
We, as people living in the “technology age”, are on the constant hunt for the bigger, the better and the easier. Just look at what refrigerators have transformed into over the years since their invention:
1.Ice box: literally a box that had ice in it. You bought giant blocks of ice and put them in the box and then stacked your food on top of the ice to keep it cold.
2.Cold box: A box that had the capability of keeping food cold without ice, however it usually required the installation of the mechanical parts, motor and compressor, in the basement or an adjacent room while the cold box was located in the kitchen Cost in 1922 (with 9 cubic feet of storage) about $714. Comparison Alert! In 1922 a Ford Model-T cost about $450.
3. Refrigerator: Luckily freon invented in the late 1920's made it much MUCH more convenient to make and own a refrigerator. The storage space has almost tripled and is up to 27.5 cubic feet and there are close to 10 different major brands/manufacturers. Not only has the storage space grown but also the features have increased. Refrigerators now come with multiple shelves and organizers, a filtered water spout, ice dispenser that has 3 settings (cubed, crushed or snow-cone). Multiple cold settings for not only the separate refrigerator and freezer sections but because you have 2 doors on both the refrigerator and freezer section you can set them to 4 different individual settings!
Why do we bother with all the extras, the next thing we will be developing refrigerators to do is cook the food before we take it out of the refrigerator; program the refrigerator to prepare dinners, pack lunches for your kids or have an alarm go off before your vegetables and fruit go bad. So, if we shave all the extra features that modern day refrigerators have what are we left with?
ANSWER: Something that keeps your food cold.
We need to look at our lives in this same way. We need to prioritize and boil down all the extra features in our lives. This shouldn't be a surprise to you Christians out there, but I'll say it anyways, God should be what our lives boil down to. Once you strip every “extra feature” of your life away and get down to the purpose of your life God has to be at the center. Once you strip every “extra feature” of your refrigerator away and get down to the purpose of your refrigerator keeping your food cold has to be at the center.
Ultimately this breaks down to fulfilling purpose. How do we find and fulfill our purpose in life? We need to see from Jesus' perspective, Colossians 3:2 says it best. We can't walk through life blinded by the “extra features” we have added to our lives to try and make them bigger, better and easier, we need to break down our lives into what is most important (hint: keeping food cold).
To continue with my metaphor, food will spoil if your refrigerator does not fulfill it's purpose and if you do not fulfill your purpose you will spoil too. What does food really want? Does it want crushed ice, or 4 variable refrigeration settings? No, food wants to fulfill it's purpose, and the same goes for our lives. If we do not fulfill our purpose we will not only let ourselves down, but we will also let others down as well. God's purpose for our life is not only going to benefit us, the reason for this is another blog post for another time, but I'll leave you with this: We are relational beings. By keeping the food cold the refrigerator fulfills its purpose thus letting the food fulfill its purpose.
So I guess I'm saying it's okay to be a fridge (that should make the women happy...maybe), but try not to be a refrigerator with distracting accessories (that should put the women back where they were before they read this).
