These are worrisome times we are living in. We’re dealing with an unprecedented global financial crisis, a stubborn recession, more and more layoffs, and a growing government deficit. It’s just bad news all the way around.
Add this pile of stink to the routine madness that you and I deal with daily, as a matter of course. Like trying to raise decent kids, and maintaining a good marriage, and paying all the bills, and the house is always a mess, the career pressures, and — Hey! What is that red spot on my shoulder? Was that there before?
So, I’m in somewhat of a gloomy mood as I sit down to read my daily dose of scripture this morning.
In keeping with God’s extraordinary sense of humor and good timing, my eyes are immediately drawn to a bold heading above the verses I’m about to read. It says in a very objective and authoritative, yet casual, italicized font:
“Do not worry.”
I read the Luke 12:23-33 passage with great concentration and an earnest desire for tranquility. But here’s what that cynical voice in my head is saying: Sure, it’s easy for Jesus to tell these people not to worry. He didn’t have the financial responsibilities of a family to worry about!
Those disciples and apostles didn’t have a mortgage payment, or car repairs, or the care and well-being of their families to think of, or college tuition payments to worry about so that their kids could get a decent start in life and avoid spending the next ten years paying off college loans the way their parents did.
The great founding fathers of our faith have very little to say about the sticky little pressures of modern family life. Couldn’t Jesus and the other guys who wrote the gospels and the epistles have given us parents and spouses a little more credit? Instead we hear them encouraging men to stay single, don’t get married unless your loins are burning up. It’s like Jesus called on these random guys to be his disciples, and bam! Just like that they leave their jobs, families and homes. Goodbye responsibility, hello Jesus!
It would have given me great comfort if, just once, Jesus told someone that the kingdom of God would be better served if he stayed at home, kept his job and took good care of his family rather than abandoning it all for the gospel:
“Jesus approached a young man named Bartolomes at his place of work and said, “Follow me.” Bartolomes immediately dropped his spreadsheet tablets (for lo, he was an accountant) and got up to follow Jesus.
His wife and six children however, chased after him frantically, crying out desperately for him to remain with them and help pay the bills so they could eat three squares a day and have a decent roof over their heads.”
“Jesus, aware of the potential family meltdown, turned to Bartolomes and said, ‘No, I did not mean for you to follow me, literally. Dost thou not have a brain in thine head to think with? I meant follow me in your heart. You will do more good for the Kingdom of God by faithfully loving and caring for your family as if you were loving and caring for me, than you ever would by gallivanting across the land.’”
Wouldn’t that be great?
Thanks to Davis for the photo.