Are you a PLP?
I remember as a child growing up in southwestern Ontario this inane schoolyard game we used to play. Well, it wasn’t exactly a “game,” and I’m not sure what we did when we did it would correctly be called “play.” Perhaps it was more a “prank” that was “pulled.” Anyway, here’s how it went…
The perpetrator would walk up to some unsuspecting child and ask in some tone of hopeful admiration “Are you a PLP?” Picking up on the apparently positive possibility of their being a “PLP” (whatever that was, for as yet the victim child had no idea) the child, in hope of peer admiration, would most often reply “Yes!” The prankster, now feigning exhaustion, would gasp out something like “Good, a ‘Public Leaning Post!’” and then collapse upon the child resting his full weight upon him.
I have no idea how widespread this ploy was practiced. Perhaps it was just an Ontario thing… or even just a local grade four thing, but… hey, I told you it was inane!
Nonetheless, the search for something to “lean” on is built into every one of us. At its core it is the instinct to worship, an inner sense that an essential support is missing and we must find it!
Some try to fill this void with a pursuit for money, wealth, financial security. Others hope that fame will fill it. Many choose instead to numb the feeling by turning to drugs or alcohol, wild living, thrill seeking or crime. But these all come up short. We find they are crutches only, not the sure Support we seek.
At this point, if our heart is hard, we may conclude that a crutch is as good as it can get. We might conclude that truly resting in Christ is merely some other man’s “crutch” instead of the one true Support that He is.
There was a sidebar to the “PLP” game which I haven’t yet mentioned. If the prankster himself found the ploy being perpetrated on him by some other child in the know, the first would quickly reply, “Yes,” but then immediately add “I am a PLP, I’m a ‘Proper Living Person!’”
May I submit to you that we all must be this sort of PLP, a ‘Proper Living Person’ who has learned the only way to navigate in this sin-torn world is by resting one’s full weight upon Christ.
Press on…
To hear Pastor Andrew’s complete message, go to the Lincoln Baptist Church website and look under ‘Sermons Online’ for the Feb. 2 message.
thebrokenrunner 
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