Sermon Tone Analysis

Fast Food Faith:  “Have it Your Way”

Intro:  Randy Pausch was a professor of computer science, human-computer interaction and design at Carnegie Mellon University.

He dealt with virtual reality stuff.

He was a much loved professor and, as it turns out, a quite good motivational speaker.

Unfortunately though, he passed away last year of pancreatic cancer.

When he had about 6 months left to live, he gave a lecture called “Achieving my childhood dreams” and from that he wrote a book called “The Last Lecture”—maybe you’ve read it.

I guess he was one of those strange people who actually wrote down his dreams and life goals--and he achieved most of them.

One that I found fascinating was that he wanted to be an imagineer for Disney.

He told the story of how he worked on the Aladdin Virtual Reality attraction as part of his research.

But when offered a job as an actual imagineer, he declined.

Wouldn’t that be a great job?!  Playing with models all day long—being creative and giving millions of people a great experience!

I discovered, along with about 6 million others who watched his lecture on You Tube, that he was a very engaging man.

And many were inspired with some of his quotes.

Imagine!

Here was a happily married man, with three boys, and the knowledge that he had six months left to live.

He was staring death in the face, and pretty sure that his enemy was going to win, and this is what he said:

Never underestimate the importance of having fun.

I’m dying and I’m having fun.

And I’m going to keep having fun every day, because there’s no other way to play it.

We don’t beat the Reaper by living longer.

We beat the Reaper by living well.

But there’s one statement he made that was probably not original with him because I heard a variation of it years ago – that goes to the heart of what we’re going to talk about today:  We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

We can’t change the cards we are dealt.

In other words, we can’t deny the reality of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

We are in what we are in.

But fast food chains come along and tell us, “have it your way.”

Another way of saying this is, you are in control.

We will adjust to you.

We will fix it up however you like.

And that’s great, in a restaurant.

And we keep hearing stories and ads that tell us, whatever you want—we can get it for you.

You are in charge.

You are in control.

Ever gone to a store and had a fight with customer service – and won?

I have.

It’s a great feeling.

I’m in control.

I’m in charge.

And that’s great in a store.

And we are told by those who love us and want the best for us that we can be whoever we want to be and do whatever we want to do.

And because of the bombardment of these kinds of messages we begin to believe, deep down inside, “you know, they are right!

I CAN be whatever I want to be.

If I believe, I can achieve”.

I really CAN have it my way.

Well, is that true?  Can we achieve something just because we believe we can?  Can we really be anything we want to be?  Can we really have it our way throughout life?

Let me take a poll.

How many of us have had life to go our way—in all areas?

That all our childhood dreams have become realities and that all our circumstances have been favorable?

I know that I haven’t.

There have been MANY times when I’ve been bitterly disappointed with life, with circumstances, with people, with myself, and even disappointed with God.

How about you?  Can you identify with that?

See, while we hear the words, “have it your way”, we know that it’s not possible to have it that way all the time.

But we go after that elusive ideal nonetheless.

And we set ourselves up for disappointment.

We begin to speak and act to “get in line” and arrange circumstances so that we can have it our way in the world.

For example, we believe that having a lot of money will make that statement come true.

Now, everybody has heard “Money can’t buy happiness.”

But it can sure come close!

Or at least that’s what we often think.

Well, if it’s not money, maybe it’s the acquisition of power.

The more power we get, the more we will be able to have life our way.

But the more power, the more headaches, the greater the power struggles we encounter.

Because, unless one is the king of the world, every person answers to someone else.

Somebody is going to win the struggle and often it’s not us.

Or what about beauty, fashion, all that kind of thing?

If I can just get people to notice how attractive I am, maybe they will hear what I have to say and my influence will set things up for me.

And so you trim some things out and expand other things and in your opinion, look perfect—until someone else comes along that others deem more attractive than you.

And then you discover that you can’t have it your way.

Or just fill in the blank.

I can have life my way if _____________ .

I will have control over my life if _______________.

To me, that’s the real issue.

How much control over my life do I have?

Not much!

Like, physically.

How much control do we have over the most mundane things, like breathing?

How many can hold your breath for 15 minutes?

Or the next heartbeat?

Or can you be as tall as you want (but some of us shrink!).

Think of relationships.

Can anyone force anyone else to have a relationship with him or her?

You see the person of your dreams—and if you’re married, you already have, right?

But you see the person of your dreams and when you want to get close to them they say, “not feelin’ it”.

And you’re devastated—because you can’t make another person have a close relationship with you—especially a romantic one.

What about career choices?

How many of us have control over that?

With so many options, we can’t do just anything we want, can we?

How many NFL fans do we have?

How many really believe they can play for their favorite team?

I understand there are some Redskin fans here.

Some Cowboy fans.

Some Steeler fans.

Now in Aug, when training camp begins, how many of you are going to go to the camp, walk on, and tell the coaching staff, “I’m here!

I want you to start me.

I know that I can make it because I want it so badly.

I REALLY BELIEVE that I can play.”

How likely is that to happen?

We have a problem:  we are told that we can be and do whatever we want to be and do—we have unlimited potential.

And when we try to communicate that to the world we discover that we are speaking a language that is different than the rest of the world speaks.

But we try to speak the language of the world.