Today’s Daily Bread ~ “The cookie isn’t working!”

2 Kings 17:16 – They defied all the commands of the LORD their God and made two calves from metal.  They set up an Asherah pole and worshiped Baal and all the forces of heaven.

I love springtime in Texas.  Seventy degree temperatures, sunny skies, and the sounds of children playing outside.  One of my favorite activities is to load up the kids in the stroller, go for a run, and end up at a park so they can play. 

We did this just the other day.  I sat and soaked up the sun while my daughter went “monkey-barring” (her words exactly) and my son hit the slides.  My exercise for the day was done, so we walked back at a leisurely pace. 

Being nearly five years old, Caitlyn doesn’t think much of the stroller, choosing instead to walk.  As we headed home, the sidewalk took us along a stone retaining wall, about two and a half feet high.  My adventurous daughter, always seeking the thrill of danger, scrambled up and took off.  I administered a strict admonition: “Sweetie, slow down!”

I scarcely had the last word out of my mouth and down she went.  I raced to comfort her and assess the damage.  Two scraped hands, a scratched up elbow and a bloody knee.  I grabbed my water bottle and did my best to clean her up.  I explained to her that this is why we don’t run on those walls.  Then we hurried home. 

Once inside, I sat her down, equipping myself with hydrogen peroxide, Neosporin, band-aides and Girl Scout cookies.  “Here you go, my love,” I said, “This will make you feel better.” 

I set to work cleaning her up.  The knee took the brunt of the fall, and had several cuts and scrapes, but nothing major.  I took a cotton ball, soaked it in hydrogen peroxide, and tenderly touched it to her skin.  I can’t verify it, but I suspect her screams could be heard for miles.

“Mommy!” she wailed, “The cookie isn’t working!”  It’s funny now, but at the time it broke my heart.  I hadn’t meant to insinuate that a thin mint would fix everything, but that’s how she heard it.  Moments later, bandaged up, she skipped off, proudly displaying her battle scars for all to see.

“The cookie isn’t working!”  That phrase rattled around in my mind all day.  How many times in my life had I placed my trust in things that simply couldn’t deliver what they promised?

Out of college, I thought if I could just get a job in radio my life would be perfect.  But once I got there, it wasn’t enough.  I wanted to be on a morning show.  I joined the Dorsey Gang, and still felt restless and incomplete.  I have tried to find peace and fulfillment in almost every idol there is.  And every time, my soul would echo my daughter’s cries: “The morning show isn’t working!  Being in really good shape isn’t working!  Drinking my cares away isn’t working!”  None of it was working.

2 Kings 17:15a – They rejected His laws and the covenant He had made with their ancestors, and they despised all His warnings.  There is someone close to me that God is trying to reach.  But this person has been rejecting Him for so long that they nearly despise religion and anything to do with it.  And meanwhile, this person is lacking a sense of purpose.  They’re bored and just finding ways to pass the time.  All of the things they are putting their hope in aren’t working. 

What is the purpose in life if we aren’t plugged into the eternal?  God carefully and delicately crafted each one of us by hand, incomplete, with a cross-shaped hole in our hearts.  Jesus is the only one that can fill that hole.  He is the only one who completes us, the only one that gives meaningful purpose to our lives.  Without Him, our souls are crying out, “The cookie isn’t working!”

Dear Heavenly Father, please help us to detach ourselves from the love of money and the things of this world.  Please work on our hearts, until the only thing we are chasing is You.  You uniquely designed each one of us, giving us gifts and talents to complete the plan you have for our lives.  Father, bring to our minds anything that we are placing above You.  Now help us to let go of it.  You tell us in Scripture to seek the Kingdom of God first, and then all these things will be added unto us.  Let us filter everything in our lives through You.  Infiltrate the way we treat our spouse, the way we parent, how we approach our job and co-workers.  Let everything we do be pleasing to You.  We love You so much, Lord.  We praise the Name above all names, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It is in His beautiful name that we pray.  Amen.