The irony is not lost on the occasion to use a spare tire donning a “Life is Good” tire cover. Meant to outfit the road with good vibes, optimism, and goodwill towards mankind, the tire cover now serves as a paradoxical billboard to the cosmic piss off the rest off the motorists have felt but couldn’t voice. I can imagine someone sitting in front of the glow of their screen, sipping a latte, listening to some pretentious hipster rage ballad ordering this tire cover on Amazon Prime – free two-day delivery – never giving a second thought to removing the damn thing once it was put in its proper place. But alas, a bump in the road – or spike – knows not of the solicited optimism, nor the repeat of the hipster rage ballad on the satellite radio! Life happens! And it isn’t always charming!
Lack of charm makes the man of Jesus, not the Savior, all the more bad ass! Jesus wasn’t just a divine storyteller of some vague far, far away land where believers would be able to escape the perils of their neighbor. No. Jesus brought the Kingdom here. He did the Kingdom here! He prayed for the Kingdom here! He showed others how to bring the Kingdom here. The Kingdom is near.
Self-pity destroys the Kingdom not because of the sorrow of misfortune, but because of the belief “I” am the only one suffering! A Kingdom isn’t made of just one, rather a multitude. Focus needs to be on the Kingdom. Recently, Kari has once again proved to be a daughter of God with her insatiable pursuit of Kingdom in the midst of her own personal struggle with the diagnosis of MS. Walking forward, not with her head held high on the One above, but rather with her hand out stretched to pick me up out of the dirt to reestablish Kingdom, she says, “I’ll help with the tire, but that cover… it has got to go!”
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
-Leonard Cohen
Muddled Soma 