So a while ago, apparently 2 years ago from what the ever
knowledgeable Wikipedia says there was a certain initiative started up by Pepsi
called the Pepsi
Refresh Project. Now the thought behind this was to provide an opportunity
for entrepreneurs to wow us with their amazing ideas about how they would have
a positive impact on the world around them.
It all seems like a really great idea until you stop to think
about the whole reason behind this project…what are we trying to refresh?
If you’re working on the Internet and your page stops
loading, you’ll refresh it and reload
the same information.
If you see something that’s out of the ordinary, you’ll find
that refreshing.
If you’re thirsty, a cold glass of water can leave you
feeling refreshed.
How does this multifaceted term fit into our everyday life?
The way that I would like to focus on refresh is most like
the idea expressed in refreshing a webpage; the idea that you are returning to
the original state.
With the Pepsi Refresh Project, that ended up being the
predominant theme in the majority of the contributions. The winners all desired
to make an impact by highlighting negative changes in their environment and
focusing on fixing these changes. The decrease in fine arts education plays a
prominent role, as does environmental damage and the role that we should have
in repairing this loss in our society. In the Pepsi Refresh Project that
becomes the main theme; refreshing as repairing.
Now, of course, you could choose any project you want as
this has become a major theme in several different facets of life, I chose this
one primarily because of the focus on the idea of refresh.
As Christians, this isn’t necessarily a word that is used in
our vernacular. We have the idea, but we use words like restore or sanctify and
veer away from the common term that we use everyday.
We recognize that there is a great deal of imperfection in
the world and that the world we live in now is far different from the
perfection described in the Garden of Eden. We recognize this and we would like
it to be different, but how do we refresh
this world?
Unfortunately, the Pepsi project won’t cut it. Even as they
are attempting to do good, they are doing so for selfish reasons; to promote
their city; to fund this idea that they think would be fun; even to promote
themselves.
When we think about being refreshed as a Christian it comes
from a far less self serving ambition. And by far less I mean, not at all.
Take a second and turn (or click) to Matthew
11:28-30. I’m sure it sounds crazy familiar to you and that is just swell.
Let’s look at this and place ourselves in the situation.
Half of us reading this really don’t know what a yoke is
other than from reading through the bible and hearing our grandparents talk
about it. So I’m going to steal a little bit from Max
Lucado and use the imagery of luggage. Now some of you are probably really
good packers and you can fit a week’s worth of stuff into one carry-on sized
suitcase. I can’t. I pack for every eventuality, I pack things that I never use
at home, but might need while I’m away. I have three different outfit choices
for each day and enough hair products to ensure that if I ever happen to wear
my hair down it will be covered in gels and sprays.
I never use half of what I pack.
I bring a lot of stuff along because I feel like I should.
All it ends up doing is weighing me down, causing me grief and exhausting me.
When someone offers to carry my suitcase for me I am both relieved and
embarrassed. Relieved because it’s so heavy that it comes as a welcome relief
and embarrassed because I don’t want someone else to take on all of the decisions
that I made that caused this suitcase to be so heavy.
This is how I imagine the yoke to be. It’s all of those bad
decisions, all of those worries and concerns that we’ve packed in. Not only do
we carry these worries upon us but they seem to grow and it’s more like the
suitcase at the end of the trip where all the stuff you brought, plus the stuff
you bought is all crammed in and it is way too heavy. But still not so heavy
that you want to give it up.
This is when we are refreshed. When we are at our most
stressed, when we’ve piled so much upon ourselves that we can barely move
forward. We are refreshed not because we want to be but because we need to be.
It comes after we have yelled and screamed and kicked up a fuss. We try to
avoid giving up everything that we’ve worked so hard to accumulate, even though
it is slowing us down and making everything more difficult. We don’t want to
hit that refresh button, and really we don’t. It takes God coming to refresh us
to realize how badly we needed to be returned to original state, how badly we
needed our luggage taken from us. We will fight and declare that we don’t need
to be refreshed but when we take that light load and give up the heaviness that
we have been carrying, it becomes even more evident how badly we have been
struggling and how much we really do need to be refreshed and return to the
original state that only Christ can offer.
