Businesses are funny. They all speak their own dialect—a sort of modified English.  Have you noticed?   In the rail business, that thing a locomotive pulls down the tracks--it's not a train.  Instead, they call it a “consist.”  Funeral directors don't refer to dead bodies.  They refer to them as “cases.”  But the food industry has an expression that has always impressed me as being downright odd.

Look at the label on a package of gum and it will likely say, “Please dispose of ‘after use.'”

“After use?”  Who actually “uses” gum?  We chew it.

Imagine being with a group of friends and you whip out a pack of Dentyne and say, “Hey, anyone here care to USE a stick of gum?”

Now...look at a box of macaroni or a cake mix.  Or a can of tuna.  Chances are there's a label or a stamp somewhere that says, “Use by....”  But...who “uses” food?   Who runs around saying, “Boy, I'm so hungry I think I'll sit down and USE a big plate of macaroni?”   We don't USE macaroni....we eat it!

I'm also intrigued by the other thing you see on food labels, “Best if used by.....”....and then there's a date.  Rather ambiguous, don't you think?  What I want to know is, just HOW bad is it after that date?  Is it merely “not quite as good” or will one bite likely put you in the emergency room?

All kidding aside, this “use by” expression brings two sobering questions to mind:

First...what IS my personal “use by” date?  Or put  more bluntly, what's my expiration date?  (Only God knows). But be assured, He has one. For me—for you—for all of us.

The second question: Can I be used?  Just how useful am I to the Savior?  Am I stale and out of date?  Or am I fresh from having spent time with Jesus and His Word?

How useful are we to the Savior?

Loyalty programs--seems like everybody's got one.  From airlines, to restaurants... supermarkets to car rental places.  Businesses everywhere want more of your business.  That's why they offer these so-called “loyalty programs.”  You know—it's the plastic card that gets you a 15% discount at your next hotel stay...or the grocery store that offers special pricing—if—you use your reward card.   Or maybe you're into collecting miles with your favorite airline's frequent flier club. 

A recent study from FanXchange and COLLOQUY shows that 54% of Americans are unhappy with loyalty program rewards.   Part of the dissatisfaction is that customers find the rewards themselves unappealing!  Another problem is the redemption process, with 43% frustrated over expired points.  39% claim it is too difficult to get enough points and 37% are ticked off that the rewards promised are somehow not available.

I wonder if Christ followers today feel the same way about the rewards that God has offered us.  So many of us express so little interest in eternal rewards. We're into life here...rather than there.  And why is that?

Do we feel it's simply too difficult to earn the eternal rewards that Christ has promised?  Or is the problem much worse—that we are simply not interested in the rewards He offers?

It's time we got our loyalty figured out.

Time we started living for rewards that will never fade away.

Hear the words of Jesus in Revelation 22:12:

          “Look I am coming soon!  My reward is with me and I will

           give to each person according to what they have done.”

Me?  I'm pondering those eternal rewards—and my “want” to want them more.  What about you?

The candy bar industry is on a roll lately.  And I'm not sure I like it.  The trend for the last few years is to offer much smaller versions of full-sized candy bars.  As if that isn't bad enough (hey, if I want a Snickers bar, I'm expecting a Snickers bar, not some shrunken alternative), they're trying to make our getting something less...sound like something better.  In a marketing hubris that only ad executives could speak with a straight face, these less-than-satisfying candy bars are said to be “fun-sized.”

Now, I get that folks watching their weight might welcome such a move.  And surely there's a place for smaller candy bars. My complaint is that something that is less than the real deal is boldly touted as “fun sized.”    But what does that make my full-sized Three Musketeers Bar-- “Boring-sized”?

I wonder if some of us aren't borrowing a concept from the candy industry in the way we live out our Christian faith. Example: personal Bible study.

Our devotional books are getting smaller and smaller. Have you noticed? Just one or two verses a day, perhaps.   And very little application to ponder along with the reading.

Is it possible that our growing satisfaction with “fun sized” devotionals—smaller readings—is largely to blame for our living so much of life disconnected from truly biblical teachings?

Hear me clearly.  I'm not throwing rocks at every devotional book out there.  There's a place for quick reads.  But if that's all we're doing—fun-sized Bible devotions—we're cheating ourselves.

What about our time spent in prayer?  Is that fun-sized, too?

The Bible strongly urges us, “Pray without ceasing.”   You wouldn't know that by showing up at a typical church prayer meeting.  Or by doing an honest spiritual inventory of most Christians.  So where do we get off feeling satisfied with “fun-sized” sentence prayers?  Again, there's a place for those—but if that's all we're praying, that's a problem.

Jesus said, “Without me you can do nothing.”   Given our high level of busyness, we're apparently doing a whole lot of something that amounts to nothing.

Let's stop cheating ourselves when it comes to personal Bible study and prayer. Let's go FULL sized...not fun-sized.

How old do you have to be before you're too old to encourage someone else?

I think I found the answer--in the "Bird Room."

That's what we call the meeting room at the nursing home where my mother-in-law lives. A large wood and Plexiglas display houses a dozen or so colorful little birds, fluttering from nest to branch and back again. So the "Bird Room" is an obvious choice for relaxing and visiting loved ones.

While we were there last time, a smiley chap named Bob reintroduced himself to my mother in law, who seemed to recall him. Bob had come on a mission: to strum on his guitar and accompany a singer who would entertain the residents.

The singer: Bob's 95 year old father.

Pops walked into the room sporting a full sized Stetson hat, a black leather jacket, cowboy boots and blue jeans. We shook hands and he sat down. I watched him fiddle with something in his pocket, finally producing a plastic lemon juice container. He popped off the lid and downed a shot of the juice explaining it got his voice ready to sing. “I'm almost one third of the way to 96," he told me.

We followed Pops and his son into the dining area where wheelchairs were being rolled in. And with that, the strummin' and singin' began. A smile on his face, Pops sang a country ballad, undistracted by the all the distractions in the room. The old man could sing, no doubt, yet his softer voice was at times lost to the ambience of the place.

A large flat panel TV played highlights from college football games, nursing assistants chatted, while against the wall, a shriveled woman, her mind lost in childhood, mumbled the same names over and over again.

To the huddled few who actually heard the old man's music it was a simple gift of encouragement from a 95 year old whose life appeared to be a testimony to the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than receive.”

How old do you have to be before you're too old to encourage someone else?

Answer: at least 96.

Anxiety swirled like the impurities in a glass of pond water.

I was feeling uneasy...a bit cranky—and I didn't quite know why.

Call it a case of the Monday Morning Blues.   Or was it?

Pacing myself along the mile-and-a-half walk to work, I attempted to take some sort of emotional inventory and became the the subject of my own interrogation:

Why are you so uptight, Jon?

            Not sure.

Did you have a bad night's sleep?

            No.  Slept reasonably well, actually.

Are you gainfully employed?

            Gratefully, yes.

And would you describe the work you do as meaningful, or merely busy work?

            Definitely meaningful.  I love that about my job.

Nervous about paying some bills?

            Not really. None in particular.

Did you eat three meals yesterday?

            Yep.  Never had to worry about a single one of them, either.  Unlike some places I've traveled. 

And are you married to someone who loves you?

            Yep.  I'm blessed, in fact.

What about your health?  Perhaps there are issues there?

            Actually, none! 

And you have some spare change on your dresser, is that fair to say?

            Yes.

You realize, of course, that little fact alone puts you among the richest in the history of civilization, right?

            So I've heard.  Read it somewhere.

Isn't it true you've been forgiven of your sins?  All of them?

            Yes.  Absolutely true.

Isn't it also true when this little blip on the time line we call “life” is over, you'll spend eternity in heaven?

            Yes.  All eternity.  

Isn't it true that “He has said never will I leave you, never will I forsake you”?

            Yes. It's true.  Every word of it.

So let me get this straight.  You have a loving family, a good job, good health, money to pay the bills, you don't worry about food—ever—you're richer than most folks in the history of the planet...you've been forgiven all your sins, granted eternal life...but you're still upset?

            Umm....Not really.  Not anymore.

I didn't think so.