bigger

      A number of years ago, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks did a popular series of comedy sketches called the "2000-Year-Old Man" which developed into several hilarious albums. The premise has Carl Reiner interviewing Mel Brooks playing the old man and inquiring concerning life way back when. At one point, Reiner asks the old man, "Did you always believe in God?"

     Brooks replies, "No. We had a guy in our village named Phil, and for a time we worshiped him."

     Reiner wonders, "You worshiped a guy named Phil? Why?"

     "Because he was big, and mean, and he could break you in two with his bare hands!"

     The interviewer asks, "Did you have prayers?"

     Brooks answers, "Yes, would you like to hear one? -- 'O Phil, please don't be mean, and hurt us, or break us in two with your bare hands.' "

     Reiner: "So when did you start worshiping God?"

     And then this wonderful answer: "Well, one day a big thunderstorm came up, and a lightning bolt hit Phil.  We gathered around and saw that he was dead.  Then we said to one another, "There's somethin' bigger than Phil!"

     There are a variety of things which we look to as our gods -- material things, immorality, climbing the corporate ladder, entertainment.  Oh, we may not call them our gods.  But those are the things we build our lives around.  That's where the majority of our time, money and thoughts go.  They serve as the center of our lives.

     But, there are times in our lives when we are reminded that "There must be something bigger!"  Like Solomon shares in the book of Ecclesiastes, we discover that nothing we fill our lives with can truly satisfy us and eventually we come to the realization that all of it will someday be gone.  What then?  There must be something bigger than success at work.  There must be something bigger than collecting "things."

     Whether they realized it or not at the time, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks made such an insightful observation.  It is only when we see that there is something bigger than us and bigger than all the things around us that we tend to elevate that we will truly begin to worship God.

     "Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord; praise him, you servants of the Lord, you who minister in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing praise to his name, for that is pleasant....I know that the Lord is great, that our Lord is greater than all gods." (Psalm 135:1-3,5)

     Whatever you may be worshiping in your life, there's something bigger!  Praise the LORD!

-allan smith