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We All Want a Scooby Snack


I mentioned yesterday that my kids sailed with me back to my childhood when we discovered Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated. It has been an entertaining jaunt, one I'm glad my kids have had an opportunity to experience. After all, my childhood worked out well for me. (Shout out to my mom!) So if my kids can get the same upbringing I did, they should end up alright as well. Now if I can only convince the police my kids will be fine riding free in the back of a conversion van, their childhood would be complete. 


Anyways, the Scooby-Doo cartoons have recently got me thinking about people and the Church. 

We are creatures of habit. For starters, my Saturday mornings feel better somehow now that I can tune in and see the Mystery Machine tooling around town. But the show itself offers many constants. Honestly, the only thing that changed in the 70's version of Scooby-Doo was the villain, but even then some things stayed very much the same.

  • The mystery was always a person with a mask...
  • ...but the gang was always scared. You'd think they would have eventually caught on.
  • Scooby and Shaggy were always scared and hungry.
  • Velma was always losing her glasses. Seriously, can we just get her some contacts?
  • And Fred and Daphne were always blissfully unaware that they belonged together.
Except for that last one, not much has changed with the newest edition for the Scooby series. The mysteries may have changed but not the fact that it will take half an episode for the gang to use Scooby and Shaggy as bait to catch the bad guys. 

We become habitual in our spiritual lives as well. From wanting to get to our regular pew to being comfortable with when we stand and sit during a worship service, our natural inclination is to do what we have always done. But just as Scooby never seems to get more snacks, we also lack the ability to grow in our faith when we decide to keep on doing the same things we have always done, despite our penchant for wanting better results. 

We can update the script all we want. But until we admit that something is inherently broken in the system and allow God to lead us into lasting change, the seemingly solvable mysteries will continue. Perhaps we should be allowing some teenagers to meddle with our lives. Insert close friends for teenagers and exchange accountability for meddling and we may just lose the mask and solve this mystery. 

That idea is worth a Scooby snack. 
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