What’s your “Green Ring?”

Driving six kids to school every day can make for a long and noisy commute. Someone is always touching someone else, or breathing too loudly, or simply looking weird. And with a 10-year age gap between the youngest and the oldest, no one ever seems to agree on what music we should listen to, usually resulting in a robust argument about which songs from the playlist should be skipped. But – I have found the solution to my morning commuter distress – Adventures in Odyssey. From the moment the first chime of the familiar introduction sounds, the car settles into absolute silence, and you could hear a pin drop over the hushed excitement from listening ears.

Our most recent trips to school have landed us firmly in the throws of the ‘Green Ring Conspiracy’ series (which is one of our favorites). The residents of Odyssey stumble upon a counterfeiting scheme right in the middle of their town and for twelve cliff-hanging episodes we must hold our breath to see how it will all be resolved!

I won’t offer any spoilers, but as I was listening to the recap of all we had learned at the end of the final episode, the words of Chris (the host of the show) seemed to echo in my head. And while most of us won’t ever have to bring down a counterfeit money-making scheme, how many things happen in our own lives, right under our own noses, that we don’t quite pay enough attention to?

The counterfeiting operation had been going on in Odyssey for over twenty years before it finally came to light. Since no one had ever bothered to look, life went on as normal. Neighbors smiled and waved, and it wasn’t until a few detectives started poking around that it was uncovered things weren’t as they seemed. As they got closer and closer to discovering the truth, the worst in people, desperate to cover their tracks, began to come to light.

Lies were made to look like the truth.

It became harder and harder to discern who to trust and people you would never expect were guilty of the worst deceit.   

It made me think about situations in my own life. Times where I’ve made a snap judgment, and it turned out things weren’t really as they had seemed on the surface.  Times when people I’ve trusted betrayed me. Times when I, myself, have betrayed others. Times when I acted impulsively on bad information, or didn’t bother to get the whole story. Times when the more I was poked, or the more I poked others, the more sinful behavior was exposed as we each tried to cover our own mistakes.

It brought to mind situations from my past that I am only now able to fully appreciate with the clarity and understanding that comes from hindsight and maturity and made me wonder how differently things might have gone had I only exercised more patience or discernment.

But as with all things in Odyssey, our characters were challenged to respond to the unusual circumstances turning their town upside-down much differently than one might expect.

• The characters learned to reach out in God’s love to those who had hurt them.

• They were inspired to fight for good and justice against the evil around them.

• They witnessed the power of what can happen when God’s people unite.

• And they saw how believing that people who have made mistakes in their past can truly change displays God’s love, compassion and forgiveness toward us all.

So, what’s your “Green Ring?” Is there a situation in your life now, or maybe from your past, that merits a closer look? People you have trusted that maybe you shouldn’t have? Something you should have spoken up about but didn’t? Someone who could use a second chance that you haven’t been offering? Something that has been lying dormant for years but should be brought to the surface in order to really be resolved?

I pray these lessons from Odyssey challenge your thinking, as they did mine, and encourage us all to live our lives more worthy of the calling to which we have been called (Ephesians 4:1).