I can still picture the guy’s face. His scraggly beard. The unkempt hair. (Sounds a bit like me on a lot of occasions….scraggly beard, unkempt hair….no judgments on those things, just attributes that I remember.) I don’t remember his name, nor do I remember what he came to purchase from me, but he still made an impression, he still sticks in my mind, and I can picture our encounter to this day.
Typically, these types of things don’t make much difference, they don’t have any lasting effect. I’ve bought and sold plenty of items through online marketplaces such as Craigslist or FaceBook. I’ve met a large number of people in a variety of places to exchange some money for goods. Whether it was selling some toys that we no longer need or purchasing some “new to us” item that we cannot live without, I’ve completed so many transactions that I wouldn’t recognize most people if I ran into them again. This guy? He was different. This guy stood out among the pack.
Why? Why do I remember him, and why am I talking to you about him now? We already know that it wasn’t because he had some kind of catchy name that I would never forget. We can also rule out that it was due to the significance of the purchase. Both of those details are long forgotten. It also wasn’t because of the scraggly beard or because of the unkempt hair. Those types of things are relatively commonplace, a dime a dozen. Do you want to know what set him apart, what caused him to be memorable in a pool of forgettable interactions?
His life motto.
In no more than a five-minute interaction with this gentleman, I learned at least one of his life mottos, a rule that he lived by, a thing that was important to him.
Here it is: “It could always be worse.”
Here we were, sometime during the pandemic, meeting outside to maintain appropriate social-distancing. A bunch of the world was paralyzed in fear, hoping that things would turn for the better. This gentleman? He had a clear message about what he believed: “It could always be worse.”
It could always be worse?
It could always be worse!
Even as the world was seeming to spiral out of control, as restrictions were in place, and as things were looking pretty negative, here was a guy with a different outlook. It could always be worse.
He’s not wrong, you know. Sometimes even when we think we’re at the bottom of something, that things couldn’t possibly be any worse than what they are at a given moment, the bottom drops out. What we thought was bad turns out to be “not so bad” compared to what came next. Typically, no matter where we are in our lives, there is always room for things to take a negative turn. He was right. It could always be worse.
It could always be worse!
Now, how did I know that this statement was a life-theme for this gentleman? After all, we had only spent a few minutes interacting. Still, in those few moments I learned that this was one of the key mottos for his life. How? He made sure that it was evident. He had the slogan written on his T-shirt. He had a bumper sticker on his car that read the same thing. There was a sticker on his windshield as well. I even learned that he was a musician, that he had written at least one song. You’ll never guess what it was called.
“It could always be worse.”
In some ways, this sounds like a pretty depressing view on life. Super negative. Always worrying about when the “worse” that may possibly happen would actually happen, when the bottom might fall. But, this was not the full message. “It could always be worse” was not the entire theme. Instead, he added a graphic to accompany the saying. One that looked like this: 😀
The basic message?
Smile. It could always be worse.
Look on the bright side. Appreciate what you have. Be thankful for the good in your life. Smile. It could always be worse. Here was a guy in the middle of a pandemic doing everything he could do to share a message that he found important. “Smile. It could always be worse.” Bumper stickers, window stickers, T-Shirts, songs, however he could express the idea, he was. And it went beyond those things as well. Though I can’t speak to his whole life, he was definitely smiling and cheerful during our interaction. Why? Because it could always be worse. He was bound and determined to look on the bright side of things, to have a positive outlook. He was so convinced of this philosophy, of this life motto that he shared it in any means that he could, even wooden nickels. That’s right. Wooden nickels.
Before the guy left as our transaction ended, he handed me a small stack of wooden nickels. On the one side, a smiley face. On the reverse, “It could always be worse.”
Smile. It could always be worse.
The other day (as I was cleaning off my tank…see last week’s devotional if you don’t get the reference), I found one of the wooden nickels. It made me smile as I remembered the gentleman who gave it to me and his passion for this message. It also made me wonder…what message am I sharing? What impression am I leaving? How am I impacting people with my life? Would people have any idea about my life mottos? My life principles? The foundation of my life? How long would it take in conversation for someone to gather something that is important to me? 5 minutes? 10? 15? 15,000?
Within 5 minutes, I knew something of importance to a gentleman that I will likely never see again in my life. He was able to make an impression by his commitment to a philosophy that he was passionate enough about to share with anyone who would listen. It made me wonder about myself. What impression am I making on those around me?
To be clear, I’m not saying that this gentleman had it all correct. There is an amount of hope and optimism found in his sentiment, but true hope can’t be based on the idea that things could always be worse than they are right now. True hope needs to be based on this promise:
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
~ Hebrews 13:5
True hope, true peace, the ability to truly look into the future with optimism, with joy can not be based on a “it could be worse” idea. That’s too flimsy. It’s not a firm foundation. Instead, our lives need to be based on the awe-inspiring fact that Jesus is with us. Right now. Whatever moment we might find ourselves living at the present. If things get better, Jesus is there. If things get worse, Jesus is there. That is a much surer foundation to support us through any life situation.
I’m also not saying that this gentleman had it all correct in terms of his method either. If we want to impact people for that which is important in our life, if we want to share our life motto, share our foundation (which hopefully all of these things are Jesus, Jesus, Jesus), a T-shirt, bumper sticker, window decal, song-writing, wooden nickel campaign isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. We can’t just slap a fish sticker on our bumper, a cross decal in our window, wear a “Need an ark? I Noah guy” T-shirt, have a cross hanging around our neck, sing aloud “Onward Christian Soldiers” as we put Christian tracts underneath every set of windshield wipers at Walmart. Those things aren’t necessarily bad, but they can’t be the whole picture. Impacting lives for Christ needs to encompass more than that.
So, what am I saying? What is the point?
I witnessed a man who was so passionate about his message that he was willing to do a whole bunch of things so that others would hear it.
What about us? What do we have to offer that is even better than a wooden nickel?
Our lives.
Our lives should be a constant testimony to the love of God within our hearts, whether or not we are wearing our red, ketchup colored shirt that says “Catch up with Jesus. Lettuce praise Him & relish Him. ‘Cuz He loves me from my head to-ma-toes.” We need to offer our lives much like Paul suggests in Romans.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
~ Romans 12:1
What are we willing to do so that others are aware of the presence of Jesus in our lives? How are we willing to share Jesus with others so that we make an impact?
We have been given something much more lasting than mere sentiment. We have been given a relationship with God and all of the blessings that fellowship through Christ brings. Forgiveness for our sins and our sinfulness. A place in the Kingdom of God. Freedom from our past. A hope for the future. We’ve been offered to be made clean, to be made right. God’s very presence is dwelling within us and producing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control. We’ve been offered the ability to persevere in life’s worst-case scenarios by the power of Christ within us. We have been offered all of these things and so much more. We should be passionate about Jesus, passionate enough to share. In our words, in our deeds, in our attitudes, in our conversations, in the way that we forgive, in the manner that we love, by the way we humble ourselves and lift others up.
So, friend, I ask you. Are you passionate about Jesus? Has Jesus become the foundation for your life, your life motto? If not, pray. Ask God to make you passionate about Christ. If you are passionate about Jesus, are you sharing his love? Are you impacting people for the kingdom? Would others know that Jesus is important to you by how you live, how you speak, how you interact, how you love?
My prayer is that we are used by God to make an impact for God’s kingdom…even if God asks for us to pass out wooden nickels.
~ Pastor Chris
