1 Lent - Luke 4:1-13

String walked into a bar.

He ordered a cocktail, but the bartender refused.

“We don’t serve your kind here,” she snapped.

“Get out!”

So String slinked outside, wandered down the sidewalk, and looked around.

There was no other establishment in sight, and he was really thirsty.

As a stranger approached, String had an idea.

“Hey, pal, can you help me?”

“Sorry, I have no spare change.”

“No, I’ve got money—I need you to rough me up.”

“What?”

“Tie me up, mess my hair, pull me apart, make me look completely ragged.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

The stranger obliged, and now String looked in a store window at his tangled,

twisted, disheveled reflection and smiled.

“Thank you, kind sir!” he chirped and returned to the bar, sat down, and ordered a drink.

“Hey, aren’t you the fellow I just threw out of here?”

“No. I’m a frayed knot.”

String is not alone.

Don’t we all, at one time or another, in one way or another, compromise ourselves a bit to get something we really want?

Maybe a preacher desperate for attention sinks to telling terrible jokes. (Could happen.)

Maybe a church pollutes creation with styrofoam to save money or time.

Maybe someone with more ambition than talent sleeps their way to success.

Maybe a parent breaks a promise to a child to pursue something more interesting.