Tigger or Eeyore?

Tigger or Eeyore?
Well, we continue with our journey looking at our legacies…As we’ve been journeying together, we’ve talked about legacies as not being about our death, but how we live our life…We’ve talked about the importance of deciding what’s important—that it’s people and relationships that matter above stuff…That humility is a wonderful trait to have and one that will help throughout our lives…That as human beings we are meant to be in community with one another and to share our lives together, and the importance of Christian community…And this morning as we also continue to learn from Randy Pausch’s lessons found in his book The Last Lecture, most of these lessons although Randy Pausch doesn’t proclaim them to be a Gospel lesson or a faith based lesson, most of these lessons seem to have a root in faith…And so logically, this morning we’re going to talk about Tigger & Eeyore…Because of course we can find Tigger & Eeyore in the pages of Scripture right?
Well, maybe Tigger & Eeyore aren’t in the pages of Scripture in specific, but their characters are…How many are familiar with Tigger & Eeyore, the characters from Winne the Pooh? Let’s start with Eeyore…What do you know or remember about Eeyore? (Wait for responses)…Eeyore was usually introduced as “gloomy old Eeyore” and had an almost permanent scowl on his face…Maybe it’s because he’s made of sawdust or kept losing his tail…but Eeyore is not known among Hundred Acre Woods as the most cheerful resident…Then there’s Tigger…What do you know or remember about Tigger? (Wait for responses)…Tigger arrived at Winne the Pooh’s house on a blustery night and literally bounced his way into Pooh’s house and the life of all the residents of Hundred Acre Woods…Their tops are made out of rubber and their bottoms are made out of springs…Their bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy, fun, fun, fun, fun…Tigger takes great pride in being the only Tigger and often finds himself in interesting situations because of his bouncing…
Within the characters of Tigger & Eeyore we have some classic and somewhat extreme examples of someone who is positive and someone who is not…And sometimes that’s used in different terms too—an optimist and a pessimist…A Tigger & an Eeyore…As you think about yourself for a moment, what would you consider yourself to be—a Tigger or an Eeyore—an optimist or a pessimist—a positive person or a negative?
Here’s a story that might help to see the difference…There were two twins—one an optimist and one a pessimist…Their differences were so extreme that for their birthday, their parents decided that they would cure them both of their extreme optimism and extreme pessimism…So, for the pessimist, they filled her room with all the fanciest and newest toys and for the optimist they filled her bedroom with horse manure…As they walked into their bedrooms to see what happened, they walked into the pessimist’s bedroom and found her crying in the middle of the room… “Why aren’t you playing with your toys!?!” They asked her… “I’m afraid if I touch any of them, I will break them!” she cried…so they continued on to the optimist’s bedroom and found her diving and searching with a giggle and big grin in the manure in her room… “What are you doing!?!” They asked her… She beamed at them and said, “There’s got to be a horse in here somewhere!!!”
Now there are some people who take great pride in being an Eeyore—they take great pride in raining on everyone’s parade…Sometimes they might acknowledge that they are proud to be an Eeyore and sometimes they don’t even recognize what they’re doing…In the same way there are people who take great pride in being a Tigger—they take great pride in pointing out the positives in any situation…Sometimes they might acknowledge that they are proud to be a Tigger and sometimes they don’t even recognize what they’re doing…Have you stopped to think about which one you are? Or have you stopped to think which one you would like to be?
Now all of this talk about Tiggers & Eeyores, there might be some who are thinking…Okay, how does this tie into faith? Well, all throughout Scripture there are people who can be identified as Tiggers or Eeyores…And this morning we have 2 stories of a Tigger & an Eeyore…Our story from John tells the story of Thomas…Now Thomas is not usually referred to just as Thomas, but as “Doubting Thomas”…Because of his most well known encounter with Jesus after Jesus’ resurrection…Thomas wasn’t with the rest of the disciples when Jesus appeared the first time and told them that he wouldn’t believe that Jesus was truly alive until he put his finger in his hands and side…Now, that had to be discouraging for the other disciples…They were going to have to face some rejection from the world, but here they were facing the rejection right within their own community—someone who was supposed to be their friend and someone who was supposed to support them…And instead Thomas doubts that Jesus is alive and rains on the disciples’ parade? Is Thomas a Tigger or an Eeyore? (response)…Well, a week after Jesus was raised from the dead, he is in a locked room with the other disciples when Jesus appears again…And Jesus tells Thomas to put his finger in his hand and side…Thomas does and then believes…Now, although we may know him as “Doubting Thomas,” it is important to point out that Thomas didn’t always doubt Jesus…He needed proof that Jesus was alive…That even in his Eeyore-like state, Thomas was still able to hear the Good News that Jesus had defeated death…
And our story from Matthew is the story of Peter walking on water…Now if Thomas is an example of an Eeyore—Peter is an example of a Tigger…After Jesus had preached a sermon and taught the crowds, he went away to refresh himself because as everyone knows if you give all of yourself, you don’t really have much to give again! And Jesus knew that it was important to spend time in prayer and renewal…Well, as Jesus is practicing Sabbath, the boat with the disciples starts to drift away and so of course Jesus makes the logical approach to walk to the boat on the water…As Jesus is walking on the water to the boat, the disciples think that they are seeing a ghost walking toward them because certainly a human being can’t walk on water!?! Now one would think that after seeing Jesus perform miracles and teach people, they would know who Jesus was—that Jesus was God in flesh…But, they cry out to this figure and Peter in particular asks that if it truly is Jesus, that he would command Peter to come out to him on the water…Jesus does and Peter walks on the water toward Jesus…A move that took a great deal of faith and knowing that Jesus had called Peter to walk out and therefore nothing would happen to him…Maybe all of those thoughts didn’t have time to run through Peter’s mind…Maybe he just bounced out of the boat toward Jesus! Now, it is true that as Peter realized what was happening, he began to doubt and started to drown…So, some might think…Oh, well there went that Tigger—he’s really an Eeyore in disguise! Well, you could make that assumption…But who was the only one who walked out toward Jesus? And when Peter was drowning, did he give up and say, “Oh well, my own fault…might as well drown here?” No, he cried out in a loud voice and Jesus saved him! It took a lot of faith on Peter’s part both to get out of the boat and to reach for Jesus’ hand…
What are you? Are you a Tigger or an Eeyore and is that what you want to be? Because you can change if you’d like—that’s your decision! Now, Tigger & Eeyore are fictional characters and even throughout their stories, they don’t always fit the mold of being an optimist or a pessimist—there are times when they aren’t always positive or always negative…Even like our stories this morning—Thomas didn’t doubt forever and Peter didn’t bounce all around on the water…But it’s their basic outlook on life that is what matters…Do you look on the bright side of life or are you always looking for life’s tragedies…The truth of the matter is that if you’re only looking for either—you’ll certainly find them…If you look for the tragedies in life you will find them all over the place…and if you look for the celebrations in life you will find them all over the place…Life is full of celebrations and tragedies, but it’s how we deal with them that’s important…
God doesn’t call us to life in the doubt, but Jesus came so that all might have life and have it abundantly! Instead of living in what we don’t have—let’s live in what we do…I went to a youth ministry training and one of their words of wisdom was to eliminate the words “just” and “only” from our vocabulary…Instead of saying, “We only had 2 youth who came to the event.” We should say, “We had 2 youth who came to the event.” Or “We just have 4 in youth group.” Instead, “We have 4 in youth group.” Because by eliminating the “just” or “only”, we give importance to those who are present—we live with what we do have and not constantly looking for what we don’t…We celebrate what we have and don’t mourn what we don’t…If we focus on whatever it is that we don’t have, we still won’t have it…but if we focus on what we do have, we can celebrate it…Jesus calls us to be Tiggers…To live life abundantly…Sometimes it means that we have to get on the boat and walk on the water…and those times that we might start to drown—cry out to Jesus to save us…That we recognize that we can walk on the water…That we can put our finger in Jesus’ hands and side…
So, which are you? A Tigger or an Eeyore? As a church, what would you say that we are? Are you happy with that? If not, what are we going to do to change that? Jesus came so that all might have life and have it abundantly…Let’s live that life and not worry about breaking the pieces…Let’s celebrate what we have and keep reaching out for what we need…Let’s live life abundantly as Tiggers!