SOME BARGAINS AREN'T

I found a T-shirt with a pale picture of an island across the chest; palm trees and water. I like it. A friend said to me last night at church, it looks like you've got you shirt on wrong-side out. The picture seems faded. No, see the tag is inside the back of my collar. When I took my shirt off late last night, sure enough there was this brightly colored picture on the inside. The graphic had been misplaced onto the inside of the shirt. No wonder I got it on the sale rack at Wal-Mart for little money!

Upon investigation I thought maybe I could clip the tag and no one would notice. It won't work. The sleeves and the collar and the hem seams all pooch out if I wear the shirt inside-out for the screened picture to be right. No matter what I do I can't get it right.

Upon further investigation of our regular lives we eventually come to the same conclusion; we can't get it right. Our course is turned inside-out and/or upside down in so many screwy ways we are stumped as to what to do. Adjusted management or recycled approaches seem to offer little improvement. What are we to do with us? We are backward and tend to live faded.

First, don't look for solutions on the bargain racks at the Quick-Fix-It mall. The more we turn our lives in and out the more frustrated we will become. Second, go for the complete solution. Jesus is the Savior of this mess. Church isn't. Self-help books aren't. Massaged self-esteem simply becomes more demanding. Jesus is the beauty of real life.

Anyone can find him, but not on the bargain rack. He's found once hanging on the most expensive rack and the cost is immeasurable. That's how valuable God believes you to be. You are no bargain. You are very expensive and God made the full purchase with no discount that your life might be right-side out and beautifully worn.....no tags, no seams showing.