Meet Miss November

During the 1976 presidential campaign Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter agreed to be interviewed by Playboy magazine. The interview famously uncovered that Carter sinned by lusting in his heart. In the same issue Miss November revealed that her hobby was Jesus Christ.

So, what does a woman like Miss November do with a man like Jesus of Nazareth? Look at him; talk to him? Anything more?

The Miss Novembers of the world remind me of other Jesus enthusiasts who have made him their hobby, too. These are people who habitually fall asleep in church, who attend one religious service a year on Christmas eve, who never read the Bible, and who pray only when adversity or death come knocking.

The Miss Novembers skim over virtually all of what Jesus has to offer. They settle for just enough bread and water to satisfy the tiniest pangs of hunger and thirst. And having quenched these needs completely they go on their way without any care in the world. They almost forget that Jesus even exists.

This is what it means to have Jesus as a hobby. He is like my inflatable friend who is kept in the closet most of the year and taken out and blown up only to remind me that I have a friend in Jesus. I never really need him for much, so I deflate the guy and put him back in the closet so that others won’t take me for a religious nut. Nothing like a weird hobby to turn someone into a freak!

I can’t fault the Miss Novembers too much because, after all, they are making a minuscule effort to include God in their lives. That should be commended. While Jesus might not be anything close to a real force in their lives, at least he resides in the nether recesses of their minds to be available for hobby time at a moment’s notice.

On the other hand, Jesus is not anyone’s hobby. He is the alpha and omega of all that exists. All roads in life ultimately lead to Jesus and end at his feet. His throne is the destiny of every Miss November that has ever lived. And when we’re standing before God on that final judgment day, there will be no time for hobby time. There will only be time to answer one question, “What did you do with my Son?”

The Miss Novembers will answer that they inflated him a couple of times a year, and listened to his word sporadically, mostly at funerals. They will contend that they thought of him from time to time, acknowledging that he existed and was an important but unrecognizable part of their lives.

I suppose it will be at this juncture when Jesus will extend his hands to show these hobbyists what their hobby looks like up close. The scars of his tortuous suffering before and on the cross will be enough proof that it was his intention from the beginning to be more than anyone’s pastime.

Second only to creation itself, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is the most significant event in the history of the universe and all reality beyond. His death was the essential factor in restoring justice and mercy between God and the world. This world was not his hobby; it was his life. He surrendered everything he had to offer me a chance to experience a realm of existence incomparable in scope and duration, and to do so as an adopted son of God Most High.

Imagine standing at the foot of the bloody cross and telling Christ that you won’t really have a lot of time to include him in most of your life. You will certainly be busy but not too busy to make him a hobby. A sometime sidekick. A diversion from the rough and tumble of everyday living. An amusement for leisure and entertainment. A watered-down spiritual pursuit, but a pursuit nonetheless.

Miss November doesn’t make Jesus a hobby because she’s interested in him. No, he’s only a hobby because she’s not interested in him as anything more. She intends to get by with a no thank you helping. It’s the same thing for everyone else just like her. They are satisfied with almost nothing of God.

It’s been my experience that men are more likely than women to push God away. Perhaps it’s because we are not as connected to our emotions. Some men may even think that an overly spiritual man is not as masculine as the nonspiritual. Nevertheless, it is an interesting dynamic. The more a man desires to conform to the image of the Man of All Men the more the world says the man is not a manly man. Hyper-masculinity in America is both anti-intellectual and anti-spiritual.

I stopped making Jesus a hobby when I made the decision, 49 years ago, to make him my God and King. No more hobby time with him. I’ve never looked back. It is the most important decision I have ever made or will ever make. It determined much of my future life and all of my purpose.

It seems the Miss Novembers of the world can’t think too far beyond the present, otherwise Jesus would be out of the closet. Someday Jesus will be fully present, but not in a good way. That encounter usually happens just after that bright light ushers you into a tunnel that leads straight to a great sea of glass and an imposing throne. By then it will be too late to explain how making Jesus a hobby was a good thing at all. There won’t even be time to mount a feeble defense, because there is none. Jesus is either sovereign over all that exists or he’s nothing, not even a hobby.

So, Miss November, put your clothes back on and come back into the world where decisions do have consequences and bad decisions do lead to regrets. Stop playing games with your spiritual life and destiny. Take Jesus out of the closet and let him make something of you that will last forever. Find a different hobby, perhaps one that doesn’t require a magazine subscription, and see what it’s like having a fully inflated Jesus floating around the house.