The Jesus life is our focus this week. How different His life was from the normal of that day. Illustrating this Sue Monk Kidd shares the following story. “Years ago, she says, while shopping in a mall in Atlanta, I let go of my three-year-old son’s hand to examine a display of scarves. When I looked around a minute later, he was gone. In vain I searched the store aisles, panic beginning to churn in my stomach. Mall security began a search, but no one could find a riffle boy in a red Sesame Street shirt. For twenty minutes I circled the store with the manager, becoming more frantic with every loop. Finally, overwhelmed, I sank onto a bench. My child was gone. As I sat there grasping for direction, I suddenly remembered the scripture I had read that morning. Jesus, walking on the shore of Galilee, called to the disciples in their boat, “Haven’t you any fish?” (John 21:4–6). “No,” they answered. Then Jesus said a curious thing. “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” They tossed their nets on the opposite side and could scarcely haul them in for all the fish. At first, the verses seemed irrelevant to my missing child. Then suddenly, I sat straight up. If I want to figure out where a three-year-old would go, I thought, I need to think like a three-year-old. In other words, I should cast my net on the “other side” of the boat. I should come at the problem from a different angle, with a new vision. All at once it was as if the needle on an inner record player were lifted out of an old groove, and a whole new piece of music began to play. I walked to a children’s shoe store we had visited earlier. There, beside a replica of Big Bird of Sesame Street, I found my son. My nets were full. The verses in John that helped me find my son taught me that creative solutions are fished out of the cistern of our own being only when we break away from rusted, familiar ways of experiencing life and dare to approach it in unique ways.¹ We are talking about living the Jesus life today: Simple Yet Effective Directives for Living the Dynamic Jesus Life. All on this week’s Light on Life.

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Keys to A Happy Heart

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