Thinking About Denny's

Just a few days ago I was driving past Denny's, and I wondered as I drove by what their "new thing" is. Do they have a new kind of biscuit or pancake they are advertising to keep up with the changing times? Perhaps a gluten-free biscuit or nine pancakes for ninety-nine cents? And I realized that whatever is going on at Denny's, it must be at the center of Mr. & Mrs. Denny's worlds. They must be thinking constantly about how business is going, hoping the public will like the new turkey bacon they are using, and so on.

Then I drove past a Toyota dealership. I pondered how Mr. & Mrs. Toyota must be feeling right now. Lots of positive advertising from them on top of lots of poor press about them must be overwhelming. There are articles on the fronts of thousands of papers and broadcastings on hundreds of networks about the new Toyota recalls. They must be terribly worried, thinking the whole world is looking down on them, as they lie in bed awake at night, hoping their company does not fall apart.

In reality, however, very few people are genuinely concerned about Denny's new biscuit or Toyota's recalls. I happen to have a Toyota, and I spent about 45 seconds of my day researching if my particular model had been recalled, realized it had not, and moved on with my day.

If you are not already terribly bored and are still reading, you might be wondering what in the world Denny's and Toyota has to do with anything in the world that you or I might care about, and I will now end your (lack of) suspense.

My meditations on that drive down I-35 got me thinking about how everyone, including myself, has something in their lives that is consuming them, that is at the center of their lives and thoughts, and that they (subconsciously) believe the rest of the world is noticing and judging.

Then I realized that all of these people are thinking far more of their own condition than anyone else is, and that the general public probably doesn't care as much as they think.

As I drove further, I began relating this to you and me.

That no one is thinking about us as much as we are. That the four pounds we gained on vacation that we are obsessing about, wondering if people are noticing, are actually noticed and cared about by little more than ourselves. Those around us are thinking far more, if not only, about their own appearance than about ours.

Or the way we are choosing to raise our children, what school we will be putting or not putting them in, how well they are behaved, and so on, is far more consuming to us than to anyone else. Everyone else is thinking about themselves and what is the center of their lives, not ours.

The point I am trying to get to is this: I think we often take ourselves much too seriously and believe others are watching us far more closely than they are in reality. Thus, if we are trying to please anyone else by our appearance, our parenting, our housekeeping, our material possessions, and so on, we are doing so in vain.

At the end of the day, I thought about Denny's for about six seconds and Toyota for forty-five seconds, and if it were not for the lesson I was being taught, I would not have thought of them again for probably another year or so (or Denny's probably ever).

And if that is the case with Denny's, Toyota, you, and me, whom in the world should we be living to please?

It is written: "'As surely as I live,' declares the Lord, 'every knee shall bow before me; every tongue shall confess to God.'" SO THEN, each of us will give an account of himself BEFORE GOD. (Romans 14:11-12)

In the end, we will all be standing before God, who judges the living and the dead. No man or woman can help or defend or speak up for us. Christ alone can speak up for us, by the blood of the Lamb, and I hope to Him that we will be found, not conformed to the pattern of this world, but longing for heaven and seeking His kingdom above all other things.

May Denny's, Toyota, and whatever else we might pass today prove as reminders for us to remove our eyes from ourselves and our circumstances, and to instead be consumed with God, His glory, His people, and His return.