CLEOEJACKSONIII.COM
  • My Home Page
  • My Life and Ministry
  • My Ongoing Thoughts
  • My Favorite Bible Verses
  • My Favorite Stories
  • My Favorite Jokes
  • My Favorite Quotations
  • My Favorite Web Links
  • My Contact Info
"Helping Others Communicate"

"WHAT'S IN YOUR SOUL?!"

8/29/2016

 
A major financial institution has employed a fairly successful advertising slogan as of late.  Their commercials all end with the pointed question: “What’s in your wallet?” Recently, having viewed one such commercial, my mind wandered back to a cartoon from my childhood.  It was an old Blake Edwards’ “Pink Panther” cartoon produced in 1965 (the third in the series) by David H. DePatie and Friz Freleng and titled “We Give Pink Stamps”.
 
Not surprisingly, given the marvels of the internet, it did not take me very long to find it on the world wide web.  It can be viewed in it's entirety at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBiSD6Aj2W4.

The plot of the 6 plus minute cartoon is that the Pink Panther gets himself inadvertently locked inside a department store for the night.  To amuse himself and pass the time, he plays with virtually every toy and/or prop imaginable.  At length, he gets his pink fur dirty in the process; and thus decides to run himself through the combination washer/dryer.

Alas, upon exiting the dryer, he finds himself a ball of floating fluff.  To remedy this, he stretches out on an ironing board and begins to press his nice clean (albeit wrinkled) pink fur. Surprisingly, the phone rings in the midst this process and he reaches to answer it.  (It is never explained who was calling the department store in the wee hours of the morning, let alone why he never called for help given that a phone was available all along.) 

What does happen is the inevitable - for while he is distracted with the phone, the unattended iron manages to burn a hole right through him.  When he emerges from the ironing board, he discovers that he has an iron shaped hole thought his chest.  What follows is a flurry of humorous activity as he desperately seeks to find something to fill this void. After trying and rejecting many objects, he finally settles on a wall clock that fits nicely into the void and then turns and walks away.
I share all of this this because I have often reflected on it as an illustration of the human predicament.  As the story of Adam and eve makes plain in Genesis chapter 3, we were all burned by sin. The resultant void in our lives has left every one of us involved in a lifelong pursuit – that of attempting to fill this void.  Accordingly, men and women everywhere have tried just about every conceivable object, activity and relationship they could find to fill the void.  But all of these have come up short.  Indeed, about the most that can be said is that we have only consumed a lot of time in the process.

The reason for this is that the void is a spiritual one.  And nothing temporal (that is, nothing of this world) can fill such a void. For a spiritual void can only be filled by something of spiritual substance.  And the Biblical word for spiritual substance is “gospel”.  The need we all have in our heart can only be met by a restored relationship with Almighty God, our Creator.  And that relationship is only possible through His Son, Jesus Christ, whose vicarious death and resurrection provided the atonement for our sin that makes such a relationship with a Holy and Righteous God possible.

So, I leave you with this question, my friend:  “What’s in your soul?”  And also with the answer - for as the Apostle John tells us in His First New Testament Letter (chapter 5, verses 11 and 12): 
“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Comments are closed.

    Cleo E. Jackson, III

    Occasionally I will add
    a few thoughts to my blog. If you find them inspirational, I will be
    honored.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All