{"id":3078,"date":"2023-10-17T07:31:29","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T11:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3078"},"modified":"2023-10-17T07:31:29","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T11:31:29","slug":"mms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/17\/mms\/","title":{"rendered":"M&M’s"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
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Halloween is our annual reminder that there sure are a lot of M&M\u2019s in the world.\u00a0
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Although the powers-that-be are reticent to share specific numbers, it\u2019s conservatively estimated that at least 400 million multi-colored, candy-coated chocolate buttons emerge from Mars Inc. factories every day.
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M&M\u2019s were a wartime invention.\u00a0 In 1941, Forrest Mars Sr. was looking for a way to deliver chocolate to American soldiers who would soon be fighting in World War II \u2013 something that would \u201cmelt in your mouth, not in your hand.\u201d
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There was a problem, however. \u00a0Mars\u2019 chief rival, Hershey, owned the rights to chocolate rationing in the United States.\u00a0 Thus was born an unlikely partnership.\u00a0 Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, the son of Hershey\u2019s president, agreed to roll out the new product together \u2013 which is why each candy is imprinted with the initials of their two last names, M&M.\u00a0
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The rest is history.\u00a0 M&M\u2019s are now sold in more than 100 countries.
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Of course, it\u2019s not always been smooth sailing.\u00a0 Steven Spielberg approached Mars in the early 1980s describing a movie he was making about a space alien with a fondness for candy.\u00a0 Could the cute alien be shown popping M&M\u2019s? \u00a0The folks at Mars thought that sounded a little sketchy.\u00a0 So Spielberg opted for Reese\u2019s Pieces \u2013 sales of which exploded by more than 300% when children saw E.T. enjoying them.\u00a0
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Then there was the disappearance of red M&M\u2019s in 1976.\u00a0 When research suggested that red dyes #2 and #4 might cause cancer in laboratory mice, red-colored food products disappeared almost overnight from American shelves.\u00a0 The irony is that Mars hadn\u2019t been using either of those dyes.\u00a0
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Eleven years later, after a national campaign spearheaded by Paul Hethmon, an undergrad at the University of Tennessee, red M&M\u2019s made a triumphant return.\u00a0 There\u2019s no truth to the rumor that Chuck Norris was able to bring back red M&M\u2019s simply by wishing them into existence.\u00a0
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The next time you reach for a handful of M&M\u2019s, it might be of value to remember that the two essential distinctives of Christianity both begin with the letter \u201cm.\u201d
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The first is Messiah<\/strong>.\u00a0
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Jesus is God\u2019s \u201clast word\u201d to a hurting, broken world.\u00a0 He is not one of many would-be rescuers.\u00a0 Nor did Jesus go to all the trouble of becoming human just to announce, \u201cHey, I have a few more rules for everybody to follow.\u201d Instead, we\u2019re called into a living relationship with a living person.\u00a0 We learn to love God and love others by walking with Jesus.\u00a0
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The second \u201cm\u201d is Mission<\/strong>.
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Matthew wraps up his gospel with Jesus\u2019 stirring challenge: \u201cGo, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you\u201d (Matthew 28:19-20).\u00a0
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Following Jesus, in other words, is inherently outward-focused.\u00a0 It\u2019s not about achieving inner peace or becoming the most authentic version of myself.\u00a0 The Messiah\u2019s prime directive is to help welcome others into the Messiah\u2019s own family.\u00a0
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If we get those two \u201cm\u2019s\u201d right, a great many things will fall into place.
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On the other hand, a great many things will go wrong if we become preoccupied with some other words that begin with the letter \u201cm.\u201d\u00a0
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It\u2019s astonishing how many worshipers get into a twist about Music<\/strong>.\u00a0 Entire denominations have become theaters of conflict because of disagreements about instrumentation, syncopation, and the like.\u00a0 Likewise, preoccupation with the Millennium<\/strong> \u2013 when is Jesus coming back, and will all the people I can\u2019t stand get \u201cleft behind\u201d? \u2013 has proven to be a major distraction from our essential mission.\u00a0 \u00a0
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It\u2019s easy to fall in love with Ministries<\/strong> and Methods<\/strong> \u2013 particular ways of being the Body of Christ that may serve one generation or one geography well, but are likely to fall flat at other times and in other places.\u00a0
\u00a0
In his book Finding the Right Hills to Die On<\/em>, Gavin Ortlund acknowledges that Marriage<\/strong> and all of its related issues \u2013 gender roles, sexuality, cohabitation, and divorce \u2013 has become a major spiritual lightning rod in recent decades.\u00a0 But our willingness to walk with others shouldn\u2019t come down to our respective convictions on such matters.\u00a0
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Sometimes God\u2019s people become fixated on a particular Mess<\/strong> \u2013 a crisis that seems to demand, right now, the lion\u2019s share of our resources, energy, and prayers.\u00a0 Options might include poverty, hunger, racism, climate change, economic injustice, political reform, and peace in the Middle East.\u00a0
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These are incredibly important matters.\u00a0 We are not to turn away and say, \u201cIt\u2019s somebody else\u2019s job to address such enduring problems.\u201d \u00a0
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But none of those issues is essential <\/em>to what it means to become a lifelong learner of Jesus.\u00a0 And the New Testament more than hints that acknowledging the identity of the Messiah<\/strong> and enlisting ourselves in his Mission<\/strong> are the two most crucial steps in making redemptive progress on the world\u2019s biggest messes.\u00a0 \u00a0
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In the end, there is one \u201cm\u201d-word that almost always gets us into the most trouble.\u00a0
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That, of course, would be Me<\/strong>.
\u00a0
I become obsessed with my<\/em> comfort.\u00a0 And my<\/em> health.\u00a0 And my<\/em> dreams.\u00a0 And my<\/em> sense as to how God ought to be running the universe.\u00a0
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Doesn\u2019t God want us to be concerned about all the issues that touch our lives every day?\u00a0 Of course he does.\u00a0 But not in such a way that we forget that he is God, and we are not \u2013 and that blessings keep coming our way because they are on their way to someone else.\u00a0
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That\u2019s something to bring to mind the next time we reach for some M&M\u2019s.
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Humorist Erma Bombeck may have insisted that \u201cthe whole reason to grow up is chocolate.\u201d
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But the Messiah<\/strong> and his Mission<\/strong> of love to a hurting world is what life is really about.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Halloween is our annual reminder that there sure are a lot of M&M\u2019s in the world.\u00a0\u00a0Although the powers-that-be are reticent to share specific numbers, it\u2019s conservatively estimated that at least 400 million multi-colored, candy-coated chocolate buttons emerge from Mars Inc. factories every day.\u00a0M&M\u2019s were a wartime invention.\u00a0 In 1941, Forrest Mars Sr…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[424,419],"class_list":["post-3078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-messiah","tag-mission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3080,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3078\/revisions\/3080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}