Unforgettable Soup

Well, like it or not, it’s time for me to make good on my promise to start fixin’ up some things around the house. My old shop is dirty and unkempt, spiders and all that. I have a storage room with a door falling off, a leaky roof, water damage floor and some siding is coming loose. Procrastination has allowed time to run things down a little and if I don’t get a handle on some it soon, I’m afraid a lot more work is going to be required for good restoration. My wife has also been after me to spruce up the inside of the house, which I’ve promised to get to many times in the past, so I guess it’s time to get out of my “winter mode” and “spring” into action. I just hope I don’t hurt myself.
In England there’s an appeal to restore Charles Darwin’s house. There-in lies a very important lesson for us all to learn about Darwin’s home being threatened by dereliction. The roof had fallen in on his lab; the main house had a leaky roof; the walls of the study were being attacked by dampness and woodworm; without a great deal of effort, this home will eventually become a total ruin. There’s a touch of irony in all of this. Darwin popularized the idea to millions and millions of people that everything has made itself, and that nature has, on a grand scale, organized matter from simple to complex …from chaos to cosmos. But in reality, virtually every single scientific observation confirms that the very opposite is true. What we observe is that, everything that’s left to itself tends to run down – just like Darwin’s house. This house will not rebuild itself. It will take a lot of intelligence and energy to improve it and restore it to its original state.
[3 John] There was a great famine in Eastern Europe. People horded all their food and as a consequence many were starving. A stranger wandered into town, promising to prepare a delicious soup for everyone. He heated water in a cauldron, removed a stone from a velvet bag, and preceded to cook it. He hinted to the curious on-lookers that it would taste much better with a little cabbage whereupon someone brought one to him. The stranger then mentioned other ingredients, one at a time, which the villagers produced. People began to offer the stranger great sums of money for the stone, which he refused to sell. Long after the famine ended, the people reminisced about the finest soup they had ever had, not realizing they had in actuality “pitched in” for the common good of all. How many people do you know who have problems in their life, and you wish there was some way you could help them? Okay, stop counting! “All God’s children got problems!” What happens to people with overwhelming problems? You know, those with so many troubles they just seem to start wasting away. When you have so many problems you begin to look and feel like Darwin’s neglected house. People like that can’t fix themselves, and no one person can bring about a good restoration. Too many say, “How could they let themselves get into this situation. All they need to do is get up off the couch and do something to turn their life around.” Trust me when I say, in most situations, it takes a lot more than self-motivation. Enter the church. God tells us that we’ll always have the poor and those who have made poor decisions, among us. The church is made up of all kinds of people with all kinds of talents. When each contributes what they have, individually and collectively, an unforgettable pot of soup can be made and life can be restored. Are you hording your God-given talents watching others starve?