HCLM BLOG

So today I’m sitting here getting ready as a pastor to do my first memorial service.  it’s for a guy named Jim Wilkinson who passed away on Saturday.  On Thursday night he said “He knew who his Savior was and that it was Jesus.”  Jim was an auctioneer.  I’ve done a lot with auctions, but not the live auctions.  I’m more of an eBay guy.  Jim was a live auction guy.  And it got me thinking about his life and our lives and the similarity with auctions that our lives have.  I’m sharing this below as part of the message later this morning:

“Jim was a man that loved antiques.  He got to be so good at buying antiques that he actually started his own auctioning business.  Before the days of eBay, he was out there finding an item, or a piece, or a rare collectible at great prices and bringing it to a greater public and providing items to people who wanted them.  Jim was real good at what he did and he shared that passion with many of his family and friends even here today that are still in the auctioning business.

It’s important I’ve learned for an auction to have some finality to it.  On eBay it’s just a time that your auction ends.  But live auctions are so much cooler.  You get to see the items in front of you, you hear all the bidding, everybody’s raising their numbers and getting competitive.  But at the end, usually at an auction you hear, “Going once, Going Twice, Sold!”  There’s some finality to it.

And auctions resemble life.  Sometimes you have this piece that you think is going to sell for a heck of a lot.  You see such great potential in this piece.  But then as the auction is going on it just isn’t going for as much as it should have gone for.  And finally, it’s gone.  Going once, going twice, sold.  And you think, “Man, I really didn’t get out of that what I thought I was going to get.  That thing should have gone for more.”  We think that about our lives a lot of times.  We could be this…we could be that.  We could get to this point or achieve this status.  But we don’t and then all of the sudden it’s over.  So much talent, so many gifts just wasted at the end of the day.  I think we’ve all felt that way about our own lives.  Jim, myself, and all of you.

But then there’s other pieces that though they don’t really look perfect, not everything is right with them, but for some reason these auctions and these pieces you see the bidding go up and up and up and at the end you think, “There’s no way I ever could have imagined somebody would have paid that price for that imperfect piece.”  I think Jim and I and all of us also resemble that second piece.  That piece that’s not perfect.  An item that the world might see and just pass over.  But when God looks at it, rather, us, he sees value and he’s willing to raise not just one hand to place a bid, but both hands.  He’s willing to pay for that piece, that item at the cross with his own life, with his own blood.  Jesus has paid that price for Jim and for all that receive his grace.  He did it because he loves us and does see value in us!”

Say a prayer of thanks today that God has risen both hands and given his life on yoru behalf and ultimately paid the price for you!