Month: February 2015

“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving . People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.”

Don’t worry about it!  That’s what Jesus is telling his disciples here.  Don’t become so consumed with wanting to carefully arrange everything in your life, and in wondering and working toward getting everything lined up and in place.  Do what you need to do, but get your priorities right, is what Jesus is saying.  Understand that God knows what you need and will provide for you.  Can you do something better than worrying, though?  Can you seek after God to love, worship, and serve him in whatever capacity and wherever you may be placed?  Can you pray like Francis of Assisi, these words, everyday:

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace;

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is discord, harmony;

Where there is error, truth;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek

To be consoled as to console;

To be understood as to understand;

To be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

 

“Joyfully you’ll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. And as you do it, you’ll say, “Give thanks to God. Call out his name. Ask him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done, spread the news of his great reputation! Sing praise-songs to God. He’s done it all!””

Can you sense the exuberance here?  The sheer overflow of joy and utter delight?  The imagery of pulling up buckets of water — one bucket after the other — from a well that never goes dry is the epitome of abundance, wouldn’t you say?  When you sense the true impact of God’s provision for you, the realization is quite staggering, and you sometimes wish to do just that: give thanks, and proclaim His goodness. 

I recently saw an episode of the popular television show, “Undercover Boss” and it wasn’t so much the amazement of the worker when her boss tells her he’s giving her $20,000, but the question that she asks him that completely blew me away.  She asks, “But why?”  Yes, why, what have I done, how can it be, could it be true, but why?  These are the same questions that each of us might ask of God.  But the answer — unlike the one offered on the show — is not because I am deserving or  have been good, but because of God’s great love for me.  Such unexpected generosity is not easy to comprehend; it is too mysterious for me.  And yet, I am overwhelmed nonetheless, and have only gratitude and praise for so great a gift, and the least I can do is “Shout to the nations, tell them what he’s done!”