In the 1991 movie, City Slickers, Billy Crystal plays the role of Mitch, a Manhattan yuppie who along with his buddies sign up for a cattle drive. Their reluctant trail boss, Curley, played by Jack Palance leads them through one adventure to the next.
In one scene, Mitch and Curley are talking and enjoying an evening ride along the trail and Mitch asks the question, “Curley, what is the meaning of life?” Never in a hurry, Curley ponders, stares off and slowly holds up one finger and finally grunts out the answer, “The meaning of life is one thing.” “Oh yea,” Mitch responds, “What is that one thing? Curley says, “That’s for you to figure out.”
Now that’s some cowboy wisdom.
What is that one thing for you? For many of the men and women we serve at our two shelters, the answer varies. Having a home, family, paying my own way, getting a good job. Some of the more honest ones might say my next meal or my next fix. It’s kinda one of those perspective things until you search the scriptures and see what God inspired the Apostle Paul to write,
“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
He figured it out. The meaning of life, that “one thing” is Jesus. That’s why we do what we do. Yes, we feed hundreds a day and provide showers and beds because that is what Jesus told us to do. But we don’t stop there. We tell them about Jesus. Some listen. Some don’t. But the point is that the “one thing” that matters in this world is “What have you done about Jesus. He died for your sins, He rose again on the third day, and He invites you to be saved and forgiven. He wants your life to have meaning. Is Jesus the “one thing” in your life?
