The following will test your qualifications to be called a “professional.”
How do you put a giraffe into a refrigerator? Answer: Open the refrigerator, put in the giraffe, and close the door. This question tests whether or not you are doing simple things in a complicated way.
How do you put an elephant in the refrigerator? The incorrect answer is: Open the refrigerator put in the elephant and shut the door. The correct answer is: Open the refrigerator, take out the giraffe, put in the elephant and close the door. This question tests your foresight.
The Lion King is hosting an animal conference. All the animals attend except one. Which animal does not attend? The answer is the elephant. He is still in the refrigerator. This tests if you are capable of comprehensive thinking.
The river is filled with crocodiles. How do you cross it? The correct answer is: You swim it; all the crocodiles are at the animal conference. This question tests your reasoning ability.
If you had all four correct you are qualified to be a professional.
Are you qualified? We want qualified professionals as well as those working in trades. We certainly want our doctors, pilots, plumbers, contractors, lawyers, and auto mechanics to be qualified to do their job. We want to be known as a qualified person in our field of endeavor.
The church is the only organization I know of where the one qualification for membership is that you are unqualified. After we become Christians, we church people spend the rest of our lives trying to qualify for heaven. You might as well give up now. You can do nothing to earn God’s unconditional love. Jesus said, “Whoever is thirsty come to me and I will give him drink.” There are no qualifications to get the drink. There are no exceptions mentioned about who may drink. There is nothing said about gaining qualifications to come back and drink again. Jesus said, “Whosoever will, let them come.” Jesus offered a series of invitations never a list of qualifications. There is nothing we can do, nothing; that qualifies us for His grace.
On Sunday the unqualified gather in church to celebrate this powerful love and grace of God through Jesus. His love and grace move us from being unqualified to children of God.
Are you qualified?
