July 15, 2016 (Friday)
When I was a teenager, I worked sometimes in my parents’ cafe. I remember one day that I was about to make a new batch of coffee in our big coffee urn. My stepfather asked me what I was doing, and when I told him the coffee was getting stale, he said, “there’s no need to start over.” Then he dropped a very small amount of salt into the coffee, and, would you believe, it tasted like fresh-brewed? A trick of the trade.
Recipe calls for buttermilk and you have none? Simply add a little vinegar to regular milk, wait ten minutes and use the new concoction as if it were buttermilk. Chances are you won’t know the difference in the finished product. Trick of the “trade.”
Life messed up? Conscience bothering you so much you lie awake at night? Afraid of being found out? Try this trick: put on a happy face and use a lot of religious language. You’ll be fine. Trick of the trade. What’s that? You tried that and you were not fine? Just keep trying, and perhaps you will become a real hypocrite.
If you’re not willing to follow that procedure, you can repent of your evil ways, depend on the Lord, surrender control of your own life to the Lord Himself, and find real happiness in Christ. Come to think of it, that’s the best way to handle that situation.
“Go Greyhound and Leave the Driving to Us” was a very successful slogan of that bus company in 1956 and for many years thereafter. Maybe that was in the mind of Dallas Holm when he wrote the song, “Front Seat, Back Seat,” and the words, “Now I’m sitting in the back seat, leaving all the driving to the Chief.” No more tricks. No more masks. No more hypocrisy. Just giving my life to the Lord–completely.