I dare you!

There was a story, you may have heard it before, but I want to share it just because It was first told to me a month or two ago and I thought about blogging the story, but I didn’t. Then in church yesterday the fill-in preacher told the story and I knew then, I needed to share it. I’m not sure if all the specifics of the story are right, but you will get the point nonetheless!


There was this son who wasn’t the best artist, but he loved doing it. He painted a self-portrait and gave it to his father. The father so loved the son and therefore loved the painting. Not long after that, the son was killed in war serving his country. Eventually when the father passed away, there was an estate sale of all his belongings. Many people showed up because they knew the antiques this man owned. Everyone was excited about all the things they wanted to buy…the very valuable things! The auctioneer got up and the first item up for bid was the self-portrait of the son. Not a single person was bidding. All you could hear was the fast voice of the auctioneer. Finally someone bid on it, just to move on to the next item. Once that item was bought, the auctioneer closed the auction. Many people were confused and quite upset because they were ready and waiting to bid on the other items. The auctioneer simply said that in the man’s will, whoever gets my son gets everything.

Wow! Right? How true is that in the Christian walk? If you have Christ in your life, you have everything! Will life be perfect? No. Will life be easy? No. When sin entered the world, it made the answer to those two questions “No.” We are human full of sin, so those answers, unfortunately will never be a yes. But with Christ in your life and as your focus, life is full! So many other stressors don’t seem like that big of a deal, when we look at the big picture with Christ in it all, it’s so much easier to be thankful for what we have and not critical of what we don’t have.

Life will never be right without Christ. It will always seem empty and lonely and hopeless. I dare you. Try Christ.