What Happened??????

A movie came out a few years ago starring Bruce Willis--I loved it. Russ Duritz, a wealthy L.A. image consultant nearing 40, is cynical, dogless, chickless, estranged from his father, and he has no memories of his childhood. One night he surprises an intruder, who turns out to be a kid, almost 8 years old. There's something oddly familiar about the chubby lad, whose name is Rusty. The boy's identity sparks a journey into Russ's past that the two of them take. The improbable premise is that Rusty is Russ--back when he still had dreams and a heart. When Rusty realizes that he actually has become this hard, unfeeling, "dogless, chickless" man, he queries in bewilderment, "What happened???"

Sometimes I get a similar response in my heart. I see people who once came to Christ for salvation. They began with hopes and dreams of a super serving life, a fabulous marriage, a contributing life--and now a few years down the road, they have crashed and burned. They haven't grown--in fact, they aren't even the people they were when they first made that commitment to Christ. They are wwwaaayyy off track. I ask myself the same question everyone else is asking about them, "What happened??"

I think I know the answer. A little girl fell out of bed one night. The next morning she explained her fall like this to her mother. "I guess I stayed too close to where I got in." That's the explanation for many of our lives, the explanation behind our failures and falls, and for the major mess-ups we make of our lives. We aren't moving closer to Jesus. We're sticking really close to where we got in.